Suomalainen upseeri murroksessa

Abstract

Finnish defense is based on universal conscription for men, which has affected the genderedness of the military as well as security work. The number of female military officers has remained around 3 %, even though it has been growing slightly for the past few years due to an increasing interest in women’s voluntary military service. Completing military service is the precondition for pursuing a career as a professional soldier. On one hand, this study aims to find out the kinds of strategies female of-ficers have adopted to find their place in the male-dominated military organization. On the other hand, it examines possible fractures and changes in Finnish military officers’ conceptions of the ideal soldier and their effects on the genderedness of the profession. The theoretical and conceptual framework of this study is detraditionalization in late modern society, post-Fordist working life, and the postmodern military, which is under constant change and increasingly interconnected with civilian society. This study is based on three datasets. The first includes nine thematic interviews with female officers concerning their experiences in military service, cadet school, and working life. The second and third datasets deal with military officers’ conceptions of the ideal soldier. One dataset was a collection of 108 texts that were gathered from two career courses, and the other included 12 thematic interviews based on the texts. Eight of the texts were from female officers, and a hundred of them were written by male officers. The interviewees included four women and eight men. The first and second datasets were analyzed using content analysis and the third one using thematic discourse analysis. The results show that despite the detraditionalization of late modern society, some, mostly war-related, traditions still live on in the military and continue to contribute to the masculine ideals and norms of the profession of a military officer. However, the so-called postmodern military is being increasingly influenced by the changes in society as well as working life, which affects the ideals of the military and causes fractures in the traditionally prevalent discourses and role expectations. These developments create space for deconstructing the genderedness of the military profession and practicing soldiering in increasingly different and individual ways.