A Multilevel Analysis of Harassment in the U.S. Military: Connecting Military Policies, Spatial Arrangements, and Workplace Interactions

• In Event: Authoritative Control and Collective Action in State Complexes

Abstract

Drawing on 40 interviews with U.S. Servicewomen this paper explores the ways in which the United States Military as an organization polices gender. I argue that the military is bureaucratically scripted as well as interpersonally organized which allows for individuals with institutional power to control both the workplace experiences and personal choices of those who work for them. Specifically, I demonstrate how spatial, interactional, and formal and informal organizational level factors entangle personal and military life in ways that allow military surveillance and legal control over service members’ lives. While some of these mechanisms are explicitly gendered, others are seemingly gender neutral. In this context, I examine the ways in which institutional policies and bureaucratic procedures can be mobilized to do harm; including the use of other-than-honorable discharge to police gender and to punish sexual abuse victims.

Author

• Stephanie Bonnes, University of Colorado, Boudler