Glass Ceilings and Sexual Abuse: Gender Inequality and Structural Bias in the Australian Defence Force

• In Event: Understanding Corporate and Organizational Crime

Abstract

This paper reflects on some preliminary findings from an investigation into discriminatory practices against women in the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The research examined such practices in light of some highly publicised incidences of sexual abuse in the ADF and a subsequent Review by the Australian Human Rights Commission into the treatment of women in the ADF (2014). The project traced the relationship between the traditionally masculine and conservative cultures, in both formal and informal manifestations, on which military membership is built. The study explored the relationship between barriers to women’s career progression and the prevalence and (mis)management of sexual harassment and abuse. This paper makes some recommendations that seek to move beyond the traditional structural responses to gender inequality so as to examine the invisible bias that remain intact within official and informal military cultures.

Authors

• Selda Dagistanli, Western Sydney University

• Kate Huppatz, Western Sydney University