Military Culture for Non-military Therapists
Dr. Kate McGraw
Psychological Health Clinical Standards of Care Deputy Director
Angela Halvorson
Healthcare Solutions Division of Advocates for Human Potential
Senior Program Associate
July 17, 2012
“Anything may happen when womanhood has
ceased to be a protected occupation.”
Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own
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Overview
 Overview
 Context: Women in military history
 Military culture
 Impact of culture on military female
 Scenarios
 Discussion/Questions
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Women in Military History
History:
 1948: Women’s Armed Services Integration Act
 1951: Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services
 1967: Two percent cap females in service, one line Colonel per
Service limits removed by Public Law 90-130
 1972: Reserve Officer Training Corps admits females
 1973: Flight training open to females in the Navy and Army, and
in 1976, the Air Force
 1974: Defense Department (DoD) rescinded separation of
pregnant females
 1976: Military academies admitted females
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Women in Military History
 1977:
 1978:
 1978:
 1980:
 1985:
 1988:
 1989:
 1990:
 1992:
First Air Force Titan missile female crew members
Army Women’s Air Corps abolished, Public Law 95-485
First Navy females reported for sea duty
First DoD sexual harassment policy issued
First female ICBM Minuteman/Peacekeeper missile
crews assigned
First male/female ICBM missile crews authorized
Females served in Operation Just Cause
90,000 females participate in Operation Desert Storm/
Desert Shield; two POWs and five died in action
Combat aircraft and ships open to females
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Women in Military History
 2008: First DoD four star General: Dunwoody
 2011: Females permitted to serve on submarines
 2012: Since 2001, about 280,000 women have deployed to Iraq
and Afghanistan; 144 have been killed, and 865 have been
wounded
 2012: First Air Force female four star general nominated:
Janet Wolfenbarger
 2012: DoD lifts restrictions on over 14,000 front line positions to
females
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Collaborative Strategies
Mental Health Task Force (2007)
 The needs of women service members and veterans should remain
a focus of high-level planning groups in DoD (with all military
services represented) and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The
DoD Psychological Health Strategic Plan should include specific
attention to the psychological health needs of women. The annual
report on the “Status of Female Members of the Armed Forces”
should include information about the adequacy of support for
psychological health of women.
 DoD should develop treatment programs specifically geared toward
the psychological health needs of female service members.
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Collaborative Strategies
2010 VA/DoD Integrated Mental Health Strategies
Strategic Action #28: Gender; Military Sexual Trauma
 Use information from research and the evaluation of clinical and
administrative data to explore gender differences in the delivery and
effectiveness of mental health services. Use findings to improve the
accessibility and quality of care, develop strategies for overcoming
health care disparities and barriers to care, and to identify the need for
further research.
 To support mental health services and research for female service
members and veterans, and for those who have experienced military
sexual trauma (both men and women) to ensure ongoing surveillance,
program evaluation and research, and to identify disparities, specific
needs and opportunities for improving both treatment and preventive
services.
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Military Culture
 Reality of military family life
 Rule bound culture: Uniformed Code Military Justice
(UCMJ)
 Family impacts career
 Living on installation
 Frequent moves
 Frequent, prolonged deployments/TDY
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Military Culture
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Unusual work hours/schedules
Fish bowl effect
Strong social support
Travel and exposure to diversity
Steady employment
Honor and patriotism
Role and responsibility of commander
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Impact of Culture on Military Female
Hochschild (1983) Emotions system theory:
 Emotion management/work, suppression, and evocation
 Feeling rules and affective culture: often at odds with individual
experience
Schein (1987) Organizational culture:
 Basic assumptions: unseen, commonly held beliefs
 Values: conscious or espoused beliefs commonly held
 Artifacts/creations: Visible manifestations of belief system (ie
uniforms, etc.)
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Impact of Culture on Military Female
 Duty, honor, country: combat and the masculine
warrior image
 Comprised mostly of men, shaped by men
 Celebration of masculine at the expense of feminine
 Affective neutrality: gender perception differs
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Impact of Culture on Military Female
Bean-Mayberry et al. (2010)
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Military females are more likely to experience mental health issues
compared to their military male counterparts
Military females are more likely to experience sexual
assault or sexual trauma than military males
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True prevalence unknown due to research and survey construct
differences
Estimated between 3 and 50% of all military females have reported
being victims, however, this number varies based on defined
construct
Number of male victims underestimated because of stigma,
reported events range from 1.5 to 38%
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Impact of Culture on Military Female
Pryor (1993)
 Perception of a commanding officer’s (CO) attitude toward sexual
harassment was related to the prevalence of reported sexual
harassment among military females
 Prevalence higher in the group of females who reported a CO who
encouraged sexual harassment than in the group of females who
reported a CO who was neutral/indifferent to sexual harassment
 Prevalence of sexual harassment higher in the group of females
with CO who was neutral/indifferent to sexual harassment, than
the group with CO who discouraged sexual harassment
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Impact of Culture on Military Females
Rosen & Martin (1998)
 Relationship between negative attitudes toward females and
tolerance of sexual harassment
Ilies (2003)
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Meta-analysis of empirical literature on sexual harassment and
workplace
Government, private sector, academic and military
Meta-analysis
Military environment: high power differential across
organizational levels
Environment with a putatively higher power differential (military
environment): highest rates of sexual harassment
No connection higher power differential and hyper-masculinity
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Scenario One
 One of you is the Secretary of Defense. The rest of
you are the subject matter experts advising the
Secretary on this matter:
 What would you change about the military culture to
improve it for females?
 What would you keep the same?
 How would you implement these changes?
 What do you see as your biggest obstacle to success
in implementing these changes?
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Scenario Two
 You are the CEO or president of the current
organization that you work for. You’d like to make a
change in your culture to empower all minorities,
including women, to be successful in your culture.
 What are the biggest cultural barriers in you
organization?
 What changes do you need to make?
 How would you being the transformation?
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"Don't compromise yourself. You are all you've got."
Janis Joplin
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Summary
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Overview
Context: Women in military history
Military culture
Impact of culture on military female
Scenarios
Discussion/Questions
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Discussion and Questions
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Military Culture for Non-military Therapists
Dr. Kate McGraw
Psychological Health Clinical Standards of Care Deputy Director
Angela Halvorson
Healthcare Solutions Division of Advocates for Human Potential
Senior Program Associate
July 17, 2012