Equal Opportunities Within An Garda Siochana, The Royal Ulster Constabulary, the International Military and the Irish Public Service

Equality of opportunity: An Garda Siochana, the Royal Ulster Constabulary, the international military and the Irish public service This chapter will consider the lot of female employees in other uniformed organisations at home and abroad and in other sectors of the public service. It will consider the question of proactive and affirmative action policies in the light of those PDF policies highlighted in chapters five to eight. I will consider equality of opportunity policy and practice within the Garda Síochána, the RUC, the international military and throughout the public service. I will also deal with issues of representation in this area from the point of view of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, RACO and PDFORRA. The examination in this chapter, of policies and practices in the area of equality of opportunity as they apply in other organisations and institutions at home and abroad, situates the study within a wider context. The practices and policies as promulgated by the PDF can be considered in comparison to those that apply elsewhere

The Forgotten Role of Women Insurgents in The 1916 Rising

The Women of the 1916 War is normally spoken of in the exclusively masculine sense – particularly by those with no experience of combat. Historical accounts of war tend to describe conflict almost solely in terms of male participation as combatants - thus reinforcing the myth of combat as an exclusively male preserve. In a similar vein – despite the de facto role that women have always played in war and combat - the current debate around our commemoration of the Easter Rising consists of a highly gendered discussion on reclaiming a legitimate remembrance of this problematic event from certain ‘men’ of violence who would no doubt purport to trace a direct lineage to the ‘men’ of 1916 or even the ‘men’ of 1798. The almost uniform references in this debate to the ‘men’ of 1916 masks the direct role – as combatants - that women played in the liberation of the state. In the current debate on the true meaning of the impending 1916 commemoration ceremonies, it is imperative - for our fullest understanding of the true significance of the Easter Rising - to acknowledge the role that women played in it

International Trends In The Deployment Of Female Soldiers

In this chapter I will briefly outline, by means of example and for the purpose of comparison, the integration of women in the international military. This outline is not intended to be an exhaustive history. It focuses primarily on the British and American experience since the end of the second world war. I have chosen the British and American armies as they are those armies with which the PDF has had most contact in terms of training and cultural exchange. In the first section of this chapter, I briefly examine the roles of women in a number of major and regional conventional conflicts, in uniform, as regular members of standing military formations. In the second section, I briefly examine the role of women in terrorism and low intensity conflict, or non conventional operations. The purpose of this outline is to provide well-documented examples of the actual combat experience of women. This provides a corrective to that construct of combat as an exclusively male or ‘masculine’ activity as discussed in the introduction and theoretical outline. It also provides a basis of comparison for the following chapters on the integration of female personnel to the PDF. The purpose of this chapter is two-fold: It is intended to establish beyond doubt for the reader the precedent of female combatants – in uniform – as a widespread phenomenon. It is also intended that this chapter serve as a context setter for the following chapters on the PDF giving them a wider perspective

Blowing the Whistle on Bullying in the Workplace:The Aftermath of Insider Research

From 1996 to 2000, the author of this paper – then a Captain serving in the Irish Army - conducted doctoral research into the status and roles assigned female personnel in the Irish Defence Forces – Army, Navy and Air Corps. An unanticipated outcome of this equality audit of the Irish Defence Forces was the revelation of the widespread bullying, harassment, sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape of female soldiers by male colleagues. As a result of conducting this feminist research, the author was ostracised by his military colleagues and suffered from a campaign of vilification in the private and public domain with serious personal and professional consequences. The author’s PhD thesis was lodged to the library of Dublin City University in November 2000 in accordance with academic regulations. It was later accessed by a number of journalists. By September of 2001 there was saturation coverage of the findings of the research in the Irish print and electronic media. The Irish military authorities reacted by suggesting that the research and its findings had been fabricated by the author. It was also alleged inter alia that the author had conducted the research covertly and that the author had concealed the ‘fabricated’ findings from the military authorities. In October of 2001 the Irish Minister for Defence launched an independent enquiry into the affair. The Department of Defence ‘Study Review Group’ investigated the findings of the doctoral thesis and reported in the Spring of 2003. It fully vindicated the findings of the author’s original doctoral research. In the interim, further defamatory allegations about the author – made by the military authorities – were circulated to Irish security correspondents and opinion writers. The author sought legal advice and commenced legal proceedings for libel against the Irish Minister for Defence and the Chief of Staff of the Irish Defence Forces. The case, Tom Clonan Vs The Minister for Defence, Ireland and The Attorney General was heard in court in Dublin on the 30th of May 2005. The author settled the case with his former employers and received a payment from the Irish Department of Defence. In September of 2007, Ireland’s national radio channel, RTE Radio 1 broadcast the story of the author’s research journey as part of a radio series on institutional ‘whistleblowers’. http://www.podcastdirectory.com/podshows/1905138 - http://www.rte.ie/radio1/whistleblowers/1156941.html In summary, this paper focuses on a number of key issues raised by the conduct of insider research in secretive and sensitive workplace settings – namely the potential for unanticipated negative professional and personal consequences for ‘non traditional’ workplace researchers and study participants. The author argues that these issues are not addressed sufficiently – and in most cases not described at all - in the academic literature on research methodology. The paper presents the author’s own experience as an insider researcher within the Irish military as a short case study of the ‘aftermath of insider research’ within the organisational setting of the Irish Defence Forces. The paper then summarises the main methodological challenges posed by the research and identifies areas within the literature on research methodology that might be expanded to take account of such challenges

The Deployment of Female Personnel Within The Irish Armed Forces

This chapter deals with the deployment of women throughout the Defence Forces over its primary (combat) and secondary (support) roles. It is intended on this basis to establish whether or not a gender division of labour exists within the PDF. It is intended to examine this phenomenon through an examination of PDF policy on deployment at home and abroad, and the Defence Forces Board Report on policy for the deployment of female personnel. This documentary analysis of PDF policies is complemented by a simple analysis of deployment statistics provided by enlisted personnel section at DFHQ. These statistics are then reviewed in light of a number of audits of the work carried out by female personnel of the PDF. These audits were carried out in two main phases, April 1997 and October 1999. These audits allow for an analysis of the de facto deployment of female personnel on the ground. The fact that the audits took place two and a half years apart allows for a simple analysis of any change in the pattern of women’s deployment, over the period of the study. This chapter on deployment explores the scope and range of military “experience” (Reskin and Padavic 1994) assigned women by the military authorities. In assessing this aspect of PDF culture, use has been made of documentary and archival material in discussing policies on the deployment of female troops (other ranks and officers). The documentary material examined also extends to a detailed treatment of PDF policies, practices and aspirations in the area of the deployment of women soldiers at home and overseas. There is a consideration of the law in relation to these policies in the section on ‘legal aspects’. This discussion of the deployment of female personnel in light of the law, functions in parallel with chapters four and nine, in situating the study within the context of the aspirations, policies and practices outside of the setting. It gives the chapter a wider perspective. The chapter concludes with a summary of the findings generated by the data. There is also much use made of the data gathered by interview revealing women’s attitudes and insights to the deployment policies and practices of the military authorities

Censorship and Secrecy: the Political Economy of Communication and the Military

The political economy of communication encompasses a broad body of literature that explores linkages between mass communication media and power brokers or ‘elites’ at a societal level (Boyd-Barrett and Newbold, 1995; Chomsky, 1996; Downing et al., 1995; Golding and Murdock, 1996; Herman et al., 1998; Keeble, 2000; Kellner, 2001; Mc Chesney and Wood, 998; Mosco, 1996; Schiller, 1992). The literature focuses on a number of key power brokers within society such as the legislature, judiciary and a wide variety of powerful state agencies, including the armed forces, that would seek in their interactions with media organisations to regulate, control and direct public communication

Pensadoras in the New Latino Diaspora: Latina Girls Navigating the Intersections of Their Social, Emotional, and Sexual Lives

The social, emotional, and sexual experiences of adolescent girls in the United States are often framed as superfluous, negative, and distracting from academic activity, rather than as significant learning experiences in girls’ developmental and academic trajectories. Specifically, the social, emotional, and sexual experiences of Latina adolescents living in poverty are commonly characterized as causing them to make poor choices, to drop out of school, or to become teenage mothers or the girlfriends of gang members (Denner & Guzman, 2006). However, most Latina girls’ experiences do not match these characterizations and little research has been conducted on the relationships between the social, emotional, and sexual experiences of Latina adolescents and their educational trajectories. Using ethnographic techniques, this research aims to the roles that Latina girls’ social, emotional, and sexual experiences play in their identity development and experiences as students in one New Latino Diaspora town called Marshall. This research will enrich feminist, educational, and developmental psychological scholarship and will provide a deeper understanding of how scholars and practitioners can provide nurturing developmental spaces for Latina girls to support one another’s academic and personal trajectories

Naomi Klein: The Shock Doctrine: Review

Naomi Klein, the award-winning Guardian columnist and best-selling author of the seminal ‘No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies’ (2000) has just completed her most ambitious project to date. With the publication of ‘Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism’, Klein may have achieved what many political leaders, economists and journalists the world over have failed to do during the tumultuous tenure of the current Bush Administration – namely to forensically prove that a ‘rolling coup’ has taken place within the United States that has subordinated its domestic and foreign policy imperatives to corporate interests and naked greed by way of the implementation of ruinous and violent strategies from the Bayou in Louisiana to the banks of the Tigris in Iraq. In the opening chapters of her work Klein introduces the reader to the deeply anti-democratic and laissez faire capitalist ideology of George W Bush’s neo-conservative clique as articulated by its intellectual architect Milton Friedman. Friedman’s philosophy of unfettered right-wing capitalism – characterised by wholesale asset stripping within states to include the totality of their natural resources and manufacturing capacity along with the privatisation of their respective education, health and security sectors – is explored by Klein in the first half of her book by way of a detailed account of the mayhem and misery caused by the neo-cons trademark ‘economic shock therapy’ as implemented in countries around the globe including Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, South Africa, Poland, Russia and Iraq. Klein demonstrates quite clearly the manner in which Friedman’s ‘disciples’ – his powerful admirers and student graduates of the Chicago School of Economics – known as the ‘Chicago School’ or the ‘Berkeley Mafia’ were intimately involved in the dismantling of democratic structures across many continents from the ‘Southern Cone’ of Latin America to Central Europe, Russia, the Middle East and Asia. Among Friedman’s disciples Klein clearly identifies former US Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld – of whom President Richard Nixon said in 1971, ‘He’s a ruthless little bastard. You can be sure of that’ – former US Chief Envoy to Iraq, Paul Bremer along with a host of other conservative Washington Republican luminaries including US Vice President, Dick Cheney

Executions At Guantanamo Bay Would Mock US Democracy

This week’s announcement by the Pentagon to seek the death penalty in the case of six prisoners at Guantanamo Bay – charged with involvement in the 9/11 attacks – represents yet another step in a long-term planning process for executions at Camp Delta at the US Naval station in Cuba. US Army Regulation 190-55 has for some time allowed for military executions by lethal injection. Until recently however, precedent within US martial law has identified Fort Leavenworth in Kansas as the location for military executions – a location which in theory, would place the condemned prisoner within the jurisdiction of US federal law and all of its protections, constitutional guarantees and appeal processes. However, in January of 2006, the US military code was amended to allow for ‘other locations’ such as Guantanamo Bay to be selected as legitimate sites for the execution of those sentenced to death by military courts. Under the revised military code, at paragraph 7, the US military’s Provost Martial General (PMG) is authorised to contract ‘for the following services … (a) Acquisition of lethal substance for lethal injection, (b) Medical or other qualified personnel to insert intravenous needles into the condemned prisoner. (c) Personnel to administer the lethal substance.’ In addition to this authority to contract these services to the US military, the PMG is now also authorised to conduct such executions, at the behest of the President of the United States and the Secretary of the Army, at Guantanamo Bay – outside of the jurisdiction of the US federal legal system. These are alarming developments when considered in light of this week’s announcement by the US military to act as judge, jury and potentially as executioner in the case of the accused prisoners at Guantanamo

The Promotion Of Women Within The Irish Armed Forces

The Promotion of Female Personnel Within the Irish Armed Forces The aim of this study, to critically examine the status and roles assigned female personnel in the PDF, has been addressed in a number of ways. The role of women in the PDF has been examined in chapter seven, in terms of the deployment policies and practices as promulgated by the military authorities. The pattern of women’s employment within a gender division of labour was charted through a number of unit audits. The women’s attitudes to this pattern of employment and their aspirations in this respect were also assessed through a simple analysis of interview data. In the chapter on training, an analysis of the PDF training environment, particularly as it impacts on women, gave some insights into the role envisaged for female troops, and their perceived status within a male dominated organisation. The issue of status, in terms of the numbers and visibility of women, was assessed in the chapter on recruitment. PDF policies in this regard were shown to have had an effect on any possible impact women may have had on the organisation by limiting the numbers of those eligible to apply for service and imposing quotas on the numbers of those selected for service. Issues of status were also examined in the chapter on deployment in terms of the appointments assigned female personnel over the primary and secondary roles of the organisation. The issue of status is now further examined in this chapter on promotion. There is a discussion of the criteria for promotion and how PDF deployment and training policies impact on women’s promotion opportunities in this regard. There is a simple analysis of figures in relation to female (other ranks) promotion and female officers’ promotion. There is also a qualitative insight into the perceptions of female troops in relation to their promotion prospects and their aspirations for promotion. The power or status of women within the organisation through this simple analysis can be assessed by applying the models outlined by Adler (1994) in terms of access to “strategic power” and Reskin and Padavic (1994) in terms of “autonomy” for female personnel. It will be of interest to note if the PDF operates to proactively promote women in the workplace in accord with EEA guidelines (1998) and in line with the spirit of equality of opportunity literature, or if indeed the PDF is a work environment hostile to equality of opportunity with an ad hoc and “informal promotion policy and a work culture that froze (sic) women out”. (Reskin and Padavic, 1994: 98-9