Book Description
The U.S. military has an exemplary set of rules governing both race relations and gender discrimination, and yet it has experienced repeated sex scandals and long-lingering racial tensions. This book takes on that paradox and critically examines the reasons underlying it. Tailhook and Aberdeen tell us that getting the rules right is not enough. Looking at institutional culture, however, shows us how the norms and daily practices of military life may condone and even encourage continued harassment and discrimination. This book seeks to provide those interested in policy as well as more theoretical analysis ways to think about how institutional culture is formed, how it works, and how it can be changed. Original essays from a variety of perspectives compare efforts to confront issues of diversity based on gender, race, and sexual orientation. The similarities among disparate cases are striking, and each chapter sheds new light on how discrimination may multiply its effects. As this book suggests, recruiting from an increasingly diverse demographic pool will improve prospects for the future but require changes in military culture-sooner rather than later.
About the author
Mary Fainsod Katzenstein is professor of government at Cornell University. Judith Reppy is professor of science and technology studies in the Peace Studies Program at Cornell University.
