Browsing by Subject "professionalization"

Gender in the military is a critical yet controversial topic both socially and scholastically. However, in review of the literature regarding servicemembers’ transitions out of the military organization, the experience of women is often excluded or generalized from the experience of their male peers. This thesis applies a gender constructivist lens to military sociology and explores the narratives of women officers who have served in the Finnish Defence Forces. It adapted the Critical Incident Technique, as well as graphic elicitation, to conduct qualitative interviews with five respondents. Subsequent analysis revealed four types of critical events that illustrate entry into and exit from the Finnish Defence Forces during a career: prompting, retaining, bridging, and affirming events. These events, as well as participants’ descriptions of identity work, cannot be understood merely through factors relating to the Institutional/Occupational Thesis, but necessitate an understanding of the negotiation of gender throughout a career in the Finnish Defence Forces. The conclusions of this work refute the simplified perspective of gender equality in Finland and demand a gender-nuanced approach to future theoretical conceptualizations of military organizations, as well as the identities of individual servicemembers.