Military Culture for Non-military Therapists

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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

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• 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 Womens 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• 1974 Defense Department (DoD) rescinded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 First Air Force Titan missile female crew
  members
• 1978 Army Womens Air Corps abolished, Public
  Law 95-485
• 1978 First Navy females reported for sea duty
• 1980 First DoD sexual harassment policy issued
• 1985 First female ICBM Minuteman/Peacekeeper
  missile crews assigned
• 1988 First male/female ICBM missile crews
  authorized
• 1989 Females served in Operation Just Cause
• 1990 90,000 females participate in Operation
  Desert Storm/ Desert Shield two POWs and five
  died in action
• 1992 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

• 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)
• 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
• 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 officers (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)
• 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. Youd 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

• 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