Maya Eichler

Citizenship and the contracting out of military work: from national conscription to globalized recruitment

The emergence of private military and security companies (PMSCs) is one of the most important developments in warfare over the past two to three decades. Employing a critical feminist perspective, this paper argues that the privatization of military security is not so much about the weakening of the states monopoly over legitimate force as it is about the transformation of how military work is organized and tied to citizenship, and by extension to race, class, and gender. Focusing on the USA, my argument is twofold: first, that the remaking of militarized citizenship through the termination of male conscription was instrumental in paving the way for the increased privatization of military security, and second, that the outsourcing of military security functions to private companies allows for a global rescaling of recruitment that geographically extends the spatial and social determinants of who works for or in support of the military. In particular, US PMSCs operating in Iraq and Afghanistan have heavily relied on racialized workers from the global South. Recruiting workers beyond the boundaries of the US citizenry relies on, and reinforces, the global inequalities of citizenship that simultaneously intersect with gendered, racialized, and classed inequalities.

Gender and the privatization of security: neoliberal transformation of the militarized gender order

The increasing reliance on private military and security companies (PMSCs) in contemporary military conflict marks a historic shift in the state’s organization of military violence. This transformation has gendered underpinnings and entails gender-specific outcomes, at the same time as it reveals a gendered continuum between public and private military and security organizations. As the US example illustrates, security privatization was facilitated by the broader neoliberal transformation of the militarized gender order and itself has had negative implications for gender equality in the military and security sphere. Based on original research, this article argues that PMSCs are deeply gendered organizations whose employment practices tends to intensify the gendered division of labour that is characteristic of public militaries. While business and operational needs may allow for temporary disruptions of gender norms, masculinism remains not only vital but is reinvigorated by privatization. Political goals such as gender equality are sidelined in a sector premised on de-regulation and free markets. In contrast to problem-solving approaches that view gender as a problem of accountability or operational effectiveness in regards to PMSCs, this article shows that gender is deeply implicated in the expansion and organization of private force at the turn of the twenty-first century.

Unmaking militarized masculinity: veterans and the project of military-to-civilian transition

ABSTRACT Feminist scholarship on war and militarization has typically focussed on the making of militarized masculinity. However, in this article, we shed light on the process of ‘unmaking’ militarized masculinity through the experiences of veterans transitioning from military to civilian life. We argue that in the twenty-first century, veterans’ successful reintegration into civilian society is integral to the legitimacy of armed force in Western polities and is therefore a central concern of policymakers, third-sector service providers, and the media. But militarized masculinity is not easily unmade. Veterans often struggle with their transition to civilian life and the negotiation of military and civilian gender norms. They may have an ambivalent relationship with the state and the military. Furthermore, militarized masculinity is embodied and experienced, and has a long and contradictory afterlife in veterans themselves. Attempts to unmake militarized masculinity in the figure of the veteran challenge some of the key concepts currently employed by feminist scholars of war and militarization. In practice, embodied veteran identities refuse a totalizing conception of what militarized masculinity might be, and demonstrate the limits of efforts to exceptionalize the military, as opposed to the civilian, aspects of veteran identity. In turn, the very liminality of this ‘unmaking’ troubles and undoes neat categorizations of military/civilian and their implied masculine/feminine gendering. We suggest that an excessive focus on the making of militarized masculinity has limited our capacity to engage with the dynamic, co-constitutive, and contradictory processes which shape veterans’ post-military lives.

Engendering two solitudes? Media representations of women in combat in Quebec and the rest of Canada

This article brings gender into the two-solitudes debate in Canadian foreign and defence policy by analyzing English- and French-Canadian newspaper coverage of women in combat in Afghanistan. We argue that there are no “two solitudes”—no national divisions are apparent between Quebec and the rest of Canada (ROC) when it comes to media representations of women in combat. Our findings confirm what other scholars have recently argued, which is that differences between the two solitudes on issues of defence policy may be less significant than often stated. The narrative of female combat soldiers presented in the media helps construct a pan-Canadian identity around the idea of Canada’s progressiveness on military gender integration. We also found that the extent to which the death of a female combat soldier received media attention was largely based on her origin from Quebec or the ROC. These differences lead us to conclude that a selective heroization of soldiers on the basis of their origins affects Canadian media coverage of the war.

Women and combat in Canada: continuing tensions between ‘difference’ and ‘equality’

Tensions between ‘difference’ and ‘equality’ have shaped and continue to shape women’s integration into the Canadian Forces (CF). While women’s presence has increased and taken new forms such as combat, the standard of soldiering against which women must prove themselves has remained masculine, especially in the combat arms. The recent war in Afghanistan illustrates some of these tensions through competing representations of women as ‘equal warriors’ and ‘female warriors.’ When it comes to women and combat, Canada is both typical and exceptional. Like most other countries, the military has a long history of excluding women from the combat arms, while selectively incorporating them into non-combat roles. The CF leadership historically resisted the full integration of women, citing fears that their presence would disturb the cohesiveness of fighting units. Operational effectiveness, it was argued, required discrimination on the basis of sex. Up until 1989, the CF maintained a gendered quota policy that determined a ‘minimum male requirement’ for each military occupation, ranging from 100% in the combat arms to 0% in the dental trades. But Canada is also exceptional when it comes to women and combat. It was among the first tier of Western countries to permit women into combat positions – as a result of social and legal changes, and pressures from a strong feminist movement. A significant turn occurred in 1970 with the publication of the report of the Commission on the Status of Women. Six of its 167 recommendations concerned the military, one of them calling for the complete opening of all positions to women. The Canadian Human Rights Act (1978) and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1985) resulted in further pressure to end discrimination against women by the CF. The 1970s and the 1980s saw an expansion of women’s military roles. While the air force lifted all restrictions on women’s employment in 1987, the army and navy continued to exclude women from combat positions. However, in 1989, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ordered the Canadian military to move toward the full integration of women over the next decade. While the CF used implicitly gendered arguments about cohesion and operational effectiveness to support its case against women’s employment in the combat arms, the Human Rights Tribunal concluded: ‘Emphasis on equality ... can strengthen the cohesion which is so highly valued by the Forces. Operational effectiveness is a gender neutral concept’ (CHRTD 1989, 34). The Tribunal ruled that ‘there is no risk of failure of performance of combat duties by women sufficient to justify a general exclusionary policy’ (CHRTD 1989, 31). This 1989 decision led to the immediate opening of all military occupations to women,

Add Female Veterans and Stir? A Feminist Perspective on Gendering Veterans Research:

This article examines how scholarship on veterans has begun to incorporate gender as a relevant category of research. Drawing on feminist theory, it identifies different approaches to gender within the field of veterans studies and suggests avenues for advancing this aspect of research. The vast majority of gender research on veterans treats gender as a descriptive category or variable through a focus on female veterans or gender differences. This article argues that research on veterans can be enriched by employing gender as an analytical category. Focusing on gender norms, power and inequality based on gender, and the intersections of gender with other categories of social difference opens up new questions for gender research on veterans. This kind of broader, analytical conceptualization of gender reveals the ways in which gender shapes the transition to civilian life for all veterans and how veterans policies and programs impact gender relations.

Reproductions of global security: accounting for the private security household

ABSTRACT This article shows how private security households exist at the nexus of two foundational logics of contemporary warfare—militarism and neoliberalism. The celebration of neoliberalism and normalization of militarism allow the private security industry to draw upon the labor of eager contractors and their supportive spouses. This article develops a feminist analysis of the role of the private security household in global security assemblages. In what ways are households connected to the outsourcing of security work to Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs), and how are these connections gendered? Through interviews with female spouses of former UK Special Air Services soldiers, now private security contractors, we demonstrate how the household is both silenced and yet indispensable to how PMSCs operate and how liberal states conduct war. These spouses supported the transition from military service to private security work, managed the household, and planned their careers or sacrificed them to accommodate their husband’s security work. Their gendered labor was conditioned by former military life but animated by neoliberal market logics. For the most part, the women we interviewed normalized the militarized values of their husband’s work and celebrated the freedom and financial rewards this type of security work brought.

The art of discomfort: engaging in dialogue on war

ABSTRACT Dialogue on war is difficult and uncomfortable, for both political and personal reasons. In this article, Maya Eichler, a feminist scholar of militaries and military conflict, and Jessica L. Wiebe, a female veteran artist, describe their experiences of co-writing and co-performing “The Weight We Share.” Drawing inspiration from Sarah Bulmer and David Jacksons piece “You do not live in my skin”, they share these reflections on their collaborative work to illustrate how art has helped them to sit with the discomfort of engaging in conversations that challenge deeply-held beliefs and emotions about the military and war.

Gender in International Relations: Interdisciplinarity and the Study of Conflict

Gender and conflict is a growing area of study. The authors show how an empirical and theoretical focus on gender and its multifaceted meanings yields entirely different explanations of conflict than traditionally understood. They highlight especially the ways in which attention to women and men, femininities and masculinities, gender norms, and gender relations challenges given categories in International Relations such as levels of analysis, and reconceptualizes security along a “continuum of violence”

An Environmental Scan of Programs and Services for Families of Veterans With Operational Stress Injuries

ABSTRACT This study identifies and describes currently available programs and services for families who have a veteran family member living with Operational Stress Injuries (OSIs). An environmental scan was completed of web-based program information for familial OSI supports. Resources were reviewed and informed a SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat) analysis. The study accessed 278 sources. Sixty-six resources met inclusion criteria, including 19 from Canada, 24 from the United States, 15 from the United Kingdom, and eight from Australia. Most resources are for active military members or veterans. Resource descriptions indicate a range of formats and intended family members. Existing resources are often embedded in supporting daily military life rather than issues related to life with OSIs, which may decrease efficacy of OSI-specific interventions. Information on evaluation and evidence for resources is also limited. Due to geographical challenges, there is a call for increasing use of technology to address equitable access.