Gender Equality in the Military

In cooperation with SEESAC, SeConS organized a two-day workshop designed for the representatives of the Ministry of Defense (MoD) and the Serbian Armed Forces’ (SAF) HR Departments. The aim of this workshop was to provide the HR representatives with deeper knowledge and insight on issues pertaining to gender equality -all in an effort to help them further develop gender responsive polices.

The workshop was based on the “learning-by-doing” method. The participants designed the Analytical Tool and used it to prepare a brief report on gender-specific issues within their organizational units, based on the available data. The implementation of gender equality status monitoring in MoD and SAF however revealed many weaknesses within the monitoring process itself: the indicators were not transparent, data was collected upon request and not by standardized procedure, the reports were drafted without predefined templates, etc. Aside from this, the report will serve as the primary advocacy tool for the follow-up activities.

This report was also used to prepare a presentation, for a study visit to Spain, on the improvement of gender equality through institutional framework development.

The situation analysis within organizational units brought to light many gender-based stereotypes associated with some of the participants. This, however, indicated the importance of gender assessment within the organizational structure of MoD, and in the SAF, as it provided first-hand feedback on the participants’ attitudes, perceptions and responses.

Acquired knowledge on the importance and usage of gender-sensitive data will thus serve to improve human resources management and the policy design process with the aim of enhancing gender equality within MoD and SAF.