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| Wing Commander Dee Gibbon - Air Force |
Wing Commander Gibbon is a rare breed - a practicing leader who is also pushing gender research. She is currently the Director of Workforce Diversity in Airforce and in her spare time is completing a PhD at UNSW / ADFA. Many thanks to Wing Commander Gibbon for agreeing to share her thoughts and to Air Force for permitting this interview.
Tell us how your interest in gender issues in the workplace started?
I joined the Air Force
in the 1980s, and it has been fascinating to watch the structural, policy-based
barriers preventing women’s full participation in the Defence workplace be
removed over the past few decades. The
final barrier, allowing women to actively serve in operational combat roles,
will be removed in 2013; this really was the last bastion of formalised gender
inequality in our Defence Force – we have come a long way since the days when
women were required to take their handbags onto the parade ground (instead of
rifles and swords!) and were not allowed to serve on any Navy ships or fly
military aircraft.
Although the formal
barriers have been removed, my research suggests that some informal, cultural
barriers remain and these may also be detrimental to women’s overall progress.
For example, most women who join Defence still have a strong preference for
those professions that might be considered ‘traditional’ for women, such as
administration, catering and the health sciences, despite having full access to
a range of other types of employment. Women are not managing to reach the upper
echelons of Defence at the same rate as their sisters in the corporate world.
Further, women still tend to leave the services at the life juncture of
commencing motherhood, because in some parts of our organisation, it can be
difficult to balance work and parenting.
We have some extremely progressive family friendly policies, but the application of these in a highly operational, predominantly male Defence workplace is challenging. These are the issues that fascinate me and are a key focus of my current role as the Director of Workforce Diversity in Air Force. We are working hard towards further mitigating or removing those remaining barriers that prevent all members of the Australian Defence Force from reaching their true potential in military service.
Tell us a little about
your PhD – what are you investigating? What made you want to start a PhD?
I view my research
(and contribution to the field of gender studies) as a culmination of my
professional role, academic interests and passion for feminist action both
within and outside Defence. My thesis
uses the heavily gendered occupation of pilot (military and civil aviation) as
a case study to examine the barriers preventing higher numbers of women from
both pursuing and remaining in this career.
Piloting has been an
outstanding choice in terms of an occupational focus; as the field has numerous
complexities that have really added to my research. For starters, unlike fields
like engineering and technical trades, piloting is a significantly
under-researched non-traditional occupation, which presents both challenges and
opportunities for researchers.
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The ‘blokey’ world of
aviation presents another point of interest; how do women negotiate their
femininity in this highly masculine environment, especially in the social
situations that form an integral part of most pilot’s everyday world. For example, while other women can leave
their gender challenges at work when they finish at 5pm, women pilots,
especially those in commercial aviation, have to deal with complex dynamics
beyond the standard workplace. Is it
okay to go shopping with the flight attendants or should they go to dinner with
the male pilots? Will they be judged if
they don’t socialise with the pilots?
Some more junior
pilots expressed that they don’t feel they really ‘belong’ with either group,
and accordingly, opted out of social situations – preferring to spend time
alone in their hotel. Thankfully more senior pilots overcome these worries
about role and gender-appropriate behaviour (but this takes time and self
confidence), but I think the hotel-room example neatly demonstrates the
loneliness sometimes associated with being different. A large number of
interviewees also stated that they weren’t ‘typical’ pilots or were not like
‘normal’ pilots. One commercial pilot actually stated “I’m not a real pilot, I just fly the plane’! Even
to some women who are pilots themselves, a ‘typical’ or ‘real’ pilot is
male. A large part of my analysis
focuses on the gender-based identity struggles that confront most women
entering masculine domains.
How did you get into
your current role?
Air Force decided a
few years ago that to really progress issues pertaining to cultural and gender
diversity, we needed to establish a team of experts dedicated to this
area. The Air Force actually sponsored a
large part of my PhD study, to prepare me for my current role, and I believe
that this was a very wise investment! Our team draws on the knowledge attained
through my research almost every day, to inform policy development, provide
strategic advice on issues pertaining to diversity, and develop the practical
initiatives that will hopefully lead to a more diverse Air Force in
future. I doubt I would have been able
to lead the team as effectively had I not spent the past few years developing a
deeper understanding of gender issues and the challenges faced by women working
in non-traditional fields.
What have been the advantages
of combining research and practice for you?
One the greatest
advantages of combining research and professional practice is the ability to
actually work towards removing many of the barriers to women identified through
my research. In the darkest and most frustrating hours of thesis writing (these seems to be growing in frequency as my deadline approaches!) I like to remind myself that beyond any contribution to theory or personal academic achievement, the research will ultimately make a huge difference to military women, both now and into the future - which is incredibly gratifying.
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One example of the
numerous initiatives we have developed in response to some findings from my
research is a guide called ‘Flying Solo’ which will be provided to all women at
the commencement of their pilot career.
We now know that most young women entering the military training
environment in fields that are heavily dominated by men really struggle with
negotiating their femininity; especially in the training context.
Their desire to be
accepted is incredibly strong, and many younger pilots will suppress their
feminine selves in order to ‘fit in’ and become a part of the group. One
interviewee, now in her 30s, noted that she would hunch over and try to hide
the fact that she had breasts - so strong was her desire to blend in and become
‘one of the boys’.
Another gender-based
challenge facing women pilot trainees is the heightened visibility that comes
purely from being different. It is impossible to just ‘blend in’ and ‘fly below
the radar’ if your mistakes are obvious
on the radio (because yours is the sole female voice!) and all of the instructors know your name! While
some women did not find this visibility to be problematic, others did, especially
at times when they were struggling with aspects of the curriculum.
Many more senior women
interviewed in this study spoke passionately about lessons they had learned
over the years and what they would do differently if they had their time over
again. We have captured these stories
and lessons learnt in Flying Solo, which will eventually be used as a template
targeting women working in other non-traditional fields within Air Force.
Flying Solo speaks
very frankly and openly about strategies that can be used to mitigate some of
the challenges faced whilst undergoing training. The guide gives numerous
examples of other womens’ experiences to provide guidance and create a sense
that they are not alone in their challenges. A key feature of the guide is a
contact list of women pilot mentors, who can be contacted at any time, day or
night, to provide a friendly ear, sage advice or just a place where students
can safely ‘vent’ if they feel the need (and they often do!). This is just one example of how the research
is being used to develop practical strategies that will make a difference to
all members working in other fields of non-traditional employment. We have
developed a guide for instructors and male students too!
What is one gender
issue in your workplace that you are passionate about and how are you trying to
address it?
Our team is very much
focused creating greater gender equity in Air Force by encouraging higher
numbers of women to go into those fields that are considered non-traditional
for women. To achieve this, we have a dedicated project team called Project
WINTER (Women In Non Traditional Employment Roles) which is targeting the
recruitment, retention and progression of women in fields like engineering, the
technical trades, aviation roles, and of course, combat roles in 2013.
We believe that higher
numbers of women in these roles will enable Air Force to capitalise on the full
range of talent available from Australian society. Because so few women elect
to pursue military careers at the moment, we find ourselves only fishing in
half of the ocean when it comes to recruiting for many Air Force roles. T-
there is a whole group of women that we just aren’t accessing. We also feel that greater diversity across
all Air Force roles will produce enormous capability benefits for Air Force –
numerous studies have shown that diverse teams outperform homogenous teams in
almost every sense. Further, the more
women that enter these fields, the better it will be for the women who are
there; greater support, less novelty factor, more tangible role models, and
less social isolation are just some of the benefits.
In your experience,
what is the key to making diversity and gender awareness part of everyday
business?
In an Air Force sense, there are three key dimensions to engendering
diversity: cultural behaviour within the organisation (and the effect on
organisational systems and processes); initial attraction to non-traditional
employment; and retaining women, particularly after they experience a break in
Service (through maternity leave or for other reasons). Targeting all three aspects requires
significant effort, resources and an underlying strategic intent to bring about
positive change.
If organisations seek
to make real gains in gender and diversity, the key is to make it an organisational
priority and provide dedicated resources to achieving those diversity
objectives. Occupations in Australia (and most of the world) are still heavily gendered, despite formal barriers being removed, programs designed to actively encourage girls into maths and science fields, and the every-day mantra that 'girls can do anything'!
Of course both women
and men can do anything - but most don’t.
It has proven extremely difficult to undo lifetimes of stereotyping and gender
socialisation. I believe that all organisations
play a critical role in developing the types of entry pathways, targeted
initiatives and retention strategies will bring about real change in the gender
make-up of our workforces in the future.
This is the ‘field of dreams’
approach – if you build it, they will come.
But before building the field, we need to develop a sound understanding
of exactly what the barriers are, and then work towards actively mitigating
those barriers. For example, research
shows that many women join traditional roles (clerical, health science) in Air
Force, without even considering any other career options. Women also question
their own ability to succeed in these non-traditional roles, primarily due to
an under-confidence in their maths and technical skills. Women also hold
perceptions that certain jobs will be too dirty, too difficult and ‘not a job
for me’.
Knowing this enables
us to develop specialised entry and training pathways that incentivise entry
into these roles, change women’s perceptions about the job; help women to
develop confidence in their own abilities; and provide women with the skills
required to succeed in these roles (preferably with a number of other women to
provide support and friendships as they progress). It can be done, but not without hard work,
resources, ingenuity – and good underpinning research!
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