Essay On Gender Roles In The Military

1927 Words8 Pages

The end of World War II saw Japan’s adoption of a uniquely pacifist Constitution. Its iconic Article 9 not only renounces war, but also prevents Japan from maintaining any “land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential”. Japan does, however, have its own Self-Defense Forces (SDF) - an all-volunteer armed force mainly deployed in rescue and relief missions as well as international peacekeeping missions. Today, the SDF “has some 230,000 personnel across the country, of whom 13,000, or 5.7 percent, are women”. While female participation in the SDF is still low, Japan’s Defense Ministry has recently put forward a menu of self-described “women-friendly” projects in its 2015 budget to “further expand recruitment and promotion of female personnel” in addition to eliminating “the conventional mindset about gender roles in the workplace”. The …show more content…

To begin with, the relationship between gender and the military will be examined in order for the significance of gender issues and female participation in the military to be understood. Thereafter, a discussion about the status of Japanese women in general will establish the social and cultural context in which the SDF is situated. Following that, this paper will look into the state of female participation within the SDF along with the positions of its female service members so as to compare the experiences between women in the SDF and those who are not. This article will conclude that as a voluntary organization, the SDF is fundamentally an extension of the Japanese civil society in terms of values and mindset. It is therefore not actually a site for gender equality seeing as gender stereotypes and social expectations found within the general society perpetuate the military institution as