Women in the military

• Main Authors: Chan, Yi-Zhen, Ong, Bryan
• Other Authors: Teo You Yenn
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/73641
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

As more women are entering the workforce and attaining higher positions, organizations have adapted their policies to be more women-friendly. One of such organization includes the SAF. We interviewed a total of 20 women military personnel. This paper has found that having more women in positions of power does not lead to the overall betterment for all women, for several reasons. Firstly, meritocracy as the SAF’s guiding ideology, secondly, tokenism within the SAF. Thirdly, physical separation of women across different services and schemes and the Queen-bee syndrome where women in positions of power potentially limit their subordinates career advancements. Finally, challenges of the family which prevents women from rising up the ranks. Despite having various obstacles in their SAF careers, women have bought into the masculine and meritocratic values so much that they fail to see that their additional efforts at work as unfair.