‘You better not get pregnant while you’re here’: tensions between masculinities and femininities in military communities of practice

Abstract

Using a life history approach, this article explores the ways in which women in the military who are also mothers learn to embody various masculinities and femininities as they negotiate workplace gender processes. Complex intersections of gendered communities of practice result in the participants’ learning to variously understand, accept, shape and/or resist interlinked personal, professional and organizational gendered discourses. First, I discuss theories of learning in communities of masculinity and femininity practice, exploring how they connect to the military context. Second, I explain how life history methodology enables an examination of participant learning through personal, organizational and societal constructs. Third, I detail the findings as they relate to the complex ways in which women in the military learn to embody various masculinities and femininities as they negotiate workplace gender processes. Last, I conclude that participants transgressed and reinforced certain boundaries between various military communities of masculinity and femininity.

Acknowledgements

This article draws on a previously presented conference paper at the Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education (CASAE) 2010 conference. Thanks goes to the participants in this session for their questions and comments. Thanks also to the anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions.