In 2013, 40% of the new recruits were women. The Department of Defence wants to increase this figure to 50%. The racial profiles also changed significantly, with former MK supporters making up the majority of the African women in the SANDF in 1994.
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Photo: Albert Gonzalez Farran / UNAMID
Women in the South African Army Fighting for Gender Transformation
WORDS Roxane Merrienne
Despite national policy and international programmes – such as the United Nations Development Programme – gender discrimination and inequality persist all around the world, with certain countries performing worse than others.
The army, through its history and its traditionally male values and ideology, is a perfect breeding ground for all these excesses – sexism and racism.
According to Jacklyn Cock, Head of the Sociology Department at the University of Witwatersrand: ‘It has frequently been argued that militarism is the root cause of women’s oppression… [and] that militarist and feminist values are antithetical. Masculinity is said to be associated with the patriarchal values of dominance, power, aggression and violence. By contrast, feminist values are said to be peace, caring, sensitivity, justice and equality. For some these qualities are innate, but for others they are a product of different patterns of gender socialisation.’
Sergeant Rosho, one of the South African women peacekeepers supports the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC by working as a signaller at Camp Ndromo, in Bunia. South Africa deploys the largest number of female soldiers in peacekeeping missions. Photo: UN Photo/Martine Perret
History of South African army
For two centuries, women worked as nurses in the different medical corps. The South African Military Nursing Service (SAMNS) was established in 1914 and became the first women’s service in the Union Defence Forces.
In 1970, the former South African Defence Force Council decided to appoint women in the military, in order to release men for operational duties. The Army Women’s College in George (Western Cape) was later established in 1971 to separately train white women for support units within the South African Defence Force (SADF).
The participation of women in the armed forces changed significantly at the end of apartheid. In fact, in 1994, the SADF was amalgamated with the formerly independent Bantustan security forces: Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK, African National Congress’ armed wing), PACs Azanian People’s Liberation Army (APLA) and the ‘self-protection units’ of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) to form the SANDF. It is at this moment, following months of negotiations within the Joint Military Co-ordinating Committee, that the SANDF started recruiting a very small number of women into the military in April 1994.
Traditional military roles
It has been reported that these were mostly young, locally trained recruits, who did not receive the overseas training like their male counterparts. Although having received infantry training alongside men, MK women were not sent abroad for officer training, contrary to several hundred MK men. Moreover, these women were initially barred from access to the infantry in the new SANDF. This reflects women’s political disadvantage before the integration process began.
It’s not unusual for women to have entered the army via nursing roles. In most of the important world Armed Forces, women have served as nurses before being allowed to serve as soldiers in combat units – most of the times during wartime, when a high number of recruits were necessary – for example, in 1914 in Russia and in 1939 in France. However, even if some countries have an important military culture, the presence of women in their ranks and their career opportunities are still difficult. This is the case for the United States Armed Forces, which recruited women since 1917, but just allowed them to serve in combat units in 2015.
In South Africa, while women constituted the majority in the country, they were inadequately represented by the SANDF, especially in decision-making structures to effect policy changes.
Moreover, women were restricted to roles within the army that did not involve close combat or positions of high foreign exposure.
Evolution of SANDF gender profiles 1994–2015
- Men
- Women
- Men
- Women
Female racial profiles SANDF 1994
- African
- White
- African
- White
Female racial profiles SANDF 2009
- African
- Coloured
- Indian
- White
- African
- Coloured
- Indian
- White
However a disproportionate number of white women hold senior ranks, but this has been attributed to the fact that they served the former SADF since the early 1970s.
Whereas prior to 1994 women were only permitted to serve in support roles, they may now be trained and serve in all ranks.
However according to the SANDF’s chief director of transformation and management and former MK’s sniper – Brigadier-General Thandi Mohale: ‘Only five of 52 current major-generals are women, and the numbers are similar in other high-ranking posts. There are no female lieutenant-generals, only 35% of the brigadier-generals are women and out of 940 colonels, 158 are women.’
Women officers, who were previously excluded from studying at the Military Academy, now comprise almost a third of the student body and in 1999 the predominantly male student body elected the first female to the prestigious position of student captain. The first female and coloured students were respectively admitted to the Military Academy in 1978 and 1979.
Female fighters on the front lines
According to Lieutenant Colonel NO Mkhwanazi: ‘When military women were asked whether they would go into frontline combat if given the chance, most black African women (75%) and coloured women (58%) said they would compared to 34% of whites. […] What is apparent is that white women’s views are similar to western trends in that they want the choice to serve in combat roles, while African women appear more prepared to serve in the frontline.’ (Survey conducted by the SANDF’s Equal Opportunities Chief Directorate (EOCD) in February/March 2013 among all military personnel)
‘A lot of women with high metric results who could do medicine or industrial psychology, even to honours level, instead choose to join the military,’ Brigadier-General Thandi Mohale explained. ‘They want to prove women can also do it. Many love adventure and the opportunities available in the army.’
Nowadays, evidence shows that women are as capable as their male colleagues. Furthermore, the SANDF has the highest number of women in Africa within its ranks. Photo: Guy Martin/defenceweb.co.za
Thus, even if patriotism is one of the motivating factors for people to join the SANDF, Mohale also said that women were increasingly attracted to the military because they saw themselves as equal to their male counterparts.
Nowadays, evidence shows that women are as capable as their male colleagues. Furthermore, the SANDF has the highest number of women in Africa within its ranks.
The 2014 South African Defence Review solemnly declares that: ‘The future soldier will be a skilled, healthy, fit and highly disciplined military imbued with a high level of morale and sense of duty. The Defence Force will be an equitable, broadly representative and gender-aligned national asset.’
Transformation & gender mainstreaming
As a young army in a newly democratic country, the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) seeks to overcome gender inequality, as well as racial disparity, within its ranks.
Alongside, Brazil, Argentina, Pakistan and Nigeria, South Africa has pledged to pilot the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, which pioneers the support of a gender perspective in peace operations, as well as the deployment of more women in peacekeeping roles. According to Lt Col Theresa Moletsane, ‘The involvement of women in peacekeeping is therefore invaluable and has advantages that a mission consisting only of men does not have. Female peacekeepers are seen as more approachable and less threatening than male peacekeepers.’
It is hoped that the UN resolution will encourage more women to participate in military decision making, which in turn will increase their capacity to influence policy around gender transformation.
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Am one of those woman who wished to be part of the military but can't get any chances to be one...being a soldiers is not about career money or any other circumstances but its more like a calling bcoz my life is stucked I don't know wat to do or where to start but I dnt lose hope I still wake up in the morning seeing my self as a soldier n fighting for my country...
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