Women’s Participation in the Jordanian Military and Police: An Exploration of Perceptions and Aspirations

Abstract

Cross-national research contends that women’s military participation has been associated with military function and organization, social structure, culture, and political factors. This exploratory study of Jordanian women suggests that these factors and their subcategories simultaneously help and hinder them. Using Segal’s updated model for women’s participation in the military, we explore how the meaning of Jordanian military women’s experiences compare in a cross-national theoretical framework. We review Segal’s updated model variables and compare it to interview data based on a grounded theory approach. Using semistructured interviews with a nonrandom sample of women who served in the Jordanian military or police, we place their experiences in a cross-national context and provide exploratory qualitative analysis of how these women navigated social and cultural norms. Our results showed that participants perceived their positive experiences and ability to achieve aspirations as enablers to their success, which they considered unlikely in the civilian workforce.

Keywords

women in the military military culture military social structure

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