On the 18th of July at Glover Cottages, Associate Professor Megan MacKenzie proposed the following question to a lively mid-winter audience: “do women belong on the front lines of war?”

Much of MacKenzie’s presentation focused on disbanding the band-of-brothers myth, the idea that the demands of combat require infantry troops to form strong emotional relationships based on trust and mutual dependence. As the military is a very gendered institution, it is no surprise that the band-of-brothers is the dominant military culture in many countries, but not all. (Israel is a notable exception). There is a perception that all male units have a special camaraderie without women present, as well as a belief that women do not have the same spirit as their male counterparts. This biased perception ultimately leads to policies that disadvantage women on the front line.

MacKenzie argues that combat exclusion was never there to protect women. Much of the debate against women joining the front line is driven by emotion: a gut reaction that God created men and women differently, and that the given nature of the woman’s inherent softer side she cannot fight effectively. There are also physical differences. Men translate women’s  physiologically differences as weakness on the battlefield. But MacKenzie argues that although women may have less upper body strength, they are strong in the lower body and legs, and respond more dramatically than men to physical training.

There is a widespread belief that the integration of women into the military will disrupt male units. But MacKenzie identifies two types of cohesion: task and social. Where social cohesion is founded on liking the people one works with, task cohesion focuses on the idea that people can work well together. MacKenzie argues that the integration of women assists with task cohesion, ultimately diversifying units and introducing and encouraging complex decision making.

Reported by Karen Du

Intern AIIA NSW