The Warrior Ethos: Discourse And Gender In The United States Army Since 9/11

Steven L. Gardiner, Zayed University

Document Type

Article

Source of Publication

Journal Of War & Culture Studies

Publication Date

12-1-2012

Abstract

At the heart of current doctrinal debates in the United States Army between counter-insurgents and warfighters is a fight over the gender identity of the institution itself. With women making up an increasing portion of the Army the default 'maleness' of the institution has become problematic. This has been exacerbated by post-9/1l battlefields in which soldiers not traditionally trained for combat operations, including women, come into contact with the enemy. The Army's response has been twofold. First it has created a new institutional gender identity - the warrior - that is meant to provide women and soldiers traditionally not directly involved in combat with a covering masculinity. Second it has resisted and rejected non-combat operations as insufficiently warrior like. This has created conflict with counterinsurgents seeking to apply modes of power less oriented to destruction - so-called kinetics and more towards domination and transformation.

ISSN

1752-6272

Publisher

Informa UK Limited

Volume

5

Issue

3

First Page

371

Last Page

383

Disciplines

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Keywords

Afghanistan, counterinsurgency, doctrine, gender discourse, Iraq War, Warfighters

Indexed in Scopus

no

Open Access

no

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