Abstract
The changing demographics of American society directly impact the composition of today’s All-Volunteer Force. As the American population becomes increasingly diverse, the military, in turn, reflects these changes through its own recruitment and retention goals, leading to a military population more diverse than forces grown and managed under selective conscription (Segal and Segal 2004). Yet, the demographics of military personnel are not a direct reflection of American society, particularly for those groups, such as women and gay men and lesbians, whose presence and participation in the military is regulated by explicit legal restrictions (Bourg and Segal 2001). Formal policy change, however, is on the horizon for both military women and gay men and lesbians, although these formal changes may not have an immediate impact on military demographics, which also are influenced by a military culture that privileges heteronormative masculinity.
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Notes
- 1.
The data in the table were drawn primarily from the NATO Committee on Women in NATO Forces and supplemented with additional sources where they could be located. Due to the lack of a comprehensive review of the role of women in the militaries outside North America and Western Europe, these data are by necessity incomplete. The development of a comprehensive analysis of the role of women in the militaries of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East is an area for further investigation.
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The writing of this chapter was supported in part by the Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences under Contract W91WAW 09 C 0077. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily of the Army Research Institute, the Department of the Army, or the Department of Defense.
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De Angelis, K., Sandhoff, M., Bonner, K., Segal, D.R. (2013). Sexuality in the Military. In: Baumle, A. (eds) International Handbook on the Demography of Sexuality. International Handbooks of Population, vol 5. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5512-3_18
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