Considerations for Integrating Women into Closed Occupations in the U.S. Special Operations Forces

Szayna, Thomas S.; Larson, Eric; O’Mahony, Angela; Robson, Sean; Schaefer, Agnes Gereben; Matthews, Miriam; Polich, John; Ayer, Lynsay; Eaton, Derek; Marcellino, William; Miyashiro, Lisa; Posard, Marek N.; Syme, James; Winkelman, Zev; Wright, Cameron; Cotugno, Megan Zander; Welser, William

doi:10.7249/rr1058

Cited by 8 publications

(9 citation statements)

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“…Similar to other studies, before proceeding, we took the following details in consideration: first, the women in SOF survey dealt with a highly politicized issue in Portugal as respondents might have viewed the survey as an influence to policy, rather than an opportunity to identify the potential challenges and opportunities for smoothing implementation and to change mentalities [15]. Therefore, we believe some respondents might not have answered in an overt way-to mitigate a possible disruption, we have cross-checked these answers with secondary sources of data collection.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Szayna et al [15] have recently conducted a survey about women integration in SOF and concluded an opposition to opening SOF specialties to women in both deep and wide, with high levels of opposition across all SOF elements. Those authors' analysis of responses to open-ended questions suggests that this opposition also is deep-seated and intensely felt.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Those authors' analysis of responses to open-ended questions suggests that this opposition also is deep-seated and intensely felt. Szayna et al [15] concluded that principal sources of this opposition are the belief among SOF personnel that women do not have the physical capabilities and other to meet the demands of the specialties; however, the lower level of opposition to women in SOF units than specialties, as well as the fact that about four in ten of our respondents agreed that women might be helpful in conducting sensitive operations and communicating with local populations might present additional opportunities for the participation of women in SOF. Sunde and Kristiansen [16] argue in the same direction, stating that women in certain urban special reconnaissance (SR) roles will increase the SR capacity in small states NATO SOF.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Obstacles Women Face in Gaining Access to Special Operations Forces

Reis

Gonçalves

Menezes³

et al. 2019

Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies

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The aim of this article is to provide exploratory insights regarding women integration in the special operations forces. The methodological approach is qualitative and employs a case study research in the Portuguese Army. It includes multiple sources of data collection for corroboration purposes, namely semi-structured interviews, direct observation and official documents. Although it has been considered a hot-topic in the Portuguese armed forces, and as the Portuguese Republic establishes the legal means to integrate women in all professional areas, reality shows that up to the present days no women have been part of the special operations forces. In light with the above, we evidence some obstacles that women are facing in gaining access to the Portuguese special operations forces, and we present Portugal in comparative perspective with two successful case studies.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Obstacles Women Face in Gaining Access to Special Operations Forces

Reis

Gonçalves

Menezes³

et al. 2019

Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies

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“…A recent report from the RAND National Defense Research Institute Corporation [12] assessed the future role for women in Special Operation Forces (SOF). Interviews held with SOF personnel led to a distressing conclusion: ''Opposition [includes] the belief among SOF that women do not have the physical and other capabilities to meet the demands … coupled with deep concern that performance standards may nonetheless be lowered to enable women to qualify for their specialties'' [12].…”

Section: Cultural Barriersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gendered Innovations in Orthopaedic Science: Equal But Different

Page¹

2016

Clinical Orthopaedics &Amp; Related Research

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“…Similarly, analyses would be needed to determine how well the indicators of training success for men generalize to women. It is important to note, however, that collecting the additional data needed for these analyses will take time because of the length of these training pipelines and the expectation that fewer women will be physically qualified for these specialties (Szayna et al, 2016). Our analyses were also limited by the quality and completeness of the data available.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Training Success for U.S. Air Force Special Operations and Combat Support Specialties: An Analysis of Recruiting, Screening, and Development Processes

Lytell¹,

Robson²,

Schulker³

et al. 2018

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This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited. Permission is given to duplicate this document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial use. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.The RAND Corporation is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous. RAND is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and committed to the public interest.RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.Support RAND Make a tax-deductible charitable contribution at www.rand.org/giving/contribute www.rand.org Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available for this publication. For more information on this publication, visit www.rand.org/t/RR2002Published by the RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, Calif. © Copyright 2018 RAND CorporationR® is a registered trademark.iii PrefaceThe U.S. Air Force continues to seek ways to improve recruiting, screening, and development processes for entry into high-demand, high-attrition (HDHA) specialties, such as special operations and combat support (SO/CS) specialties. In fiscal year 2016, the Air Force asked RAND Project AIR FORCE to identify and recommend effective methods and tools for recruiting, screening, and developing candidates into HDHA specialties. This project focused on six enlisted HDHA specialties: Combat Control (CCT); Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD); Pararescue (PJ); Special Operations Weather Team (SOWT); Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE); and Tactical Air Control Party (TACP). Previous efforts to implement new recruiting, screening, and development approaches for these specialties have yet to result in longlasting, significant changes to entry processes. We build on these other efforts by addressing the broader challenges for implementing new approaches to HDHA-specialty recruiting, screening, and development, and by taking a holistic approach to identifying methods and tools that could fill gaps in current processes.This report describes work that should be of interest to policy and research audiences with interests in recruiting, screening, and development processes for SO/CS specialties. The report assumes readers will have some familiarity with Air Force enlisted recruiting, screening, and development processes. The work in this report was sponsored by the Vice Commander, Air Education and Training Command (AETC/CV). This project was conducted within the Manpower, Personnel, and Training Program of RAND Project AIR FORCE. RAND Project AIR FORCERAND Project AIR FORCE (PAF), a division of the RAND Corporation, is the U.S. Air Fo...

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Considerations for Integrating Women into Closed Occupations in the U.S. Special Operations Forces

Cited by 8 publications

References 0 publications

The Obstacles Women Face in Gaining Access to Special Operations Forces

The Obstacles Women Face in Gaining Access to Special Operations Forces

Gendered Innovations in Orthopaedic Science: Equal But Different

Training Success for U.S. Air Force Special Operations and Combat Support Specialties: An Analysis of Recruiting, Screening, and Development Processes

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