A Career in the Military: Gender Gap in Senior Positions in the Military Compared with Civilian Corporate and Public Organisations. a Crosscultural Research.

According to last available data on military retention and career of women in the Armed Forces of NATO nations members and partners, gender gap in career advancement is slightly lowering in medium-high ranks, while recruitment and retention rates are growing fast especially in former-eastern countries such as Hungary, Latvia, Slovenia and Bulgaria (Summary of the National Reports of NATO Member and Partner Nations to the NATO Committee on Gender Perspectives, Brussels, 2015). The hypothesis discussed in this paper is that, being public policies and affirmative actions present in rather all 27 NATO countries, the highly different gender proportion in presence and advancement in the various countries is affected much more by specific socio-cultural traits than by legal actions and supportive policies.

Usually gender gap in the military is observed per se, not considering the gender gap in career advancement and senior leader positions for women in the civilian sectors of parent society. A comparative research on several NATO countries has considered existing gander gaps in civilian as well as military careers inasmuch as senior positions are concerned. Data are drawn from NATO Committee on Gender Perspective Archives, from yearly Global Gender Gap Reports (WEF) and other well-known international databases on gender diversity and career in corporate and public organisations.