THREE

Women and War: Australia

BEVERLEY RAPHAEL, SUSAN NEUHAUS, AND SAMANTHA CROMPVOETS

Australian women, like all others, have had a long association with war: as the victims of conflict themselves; as the wives and lovers of men; as mothers, grandmothers, daughters, and aunts. These women may have been directly or indirectly involved—directly if the conflict took place where they were, or they were defending and fighting themselves to protect children, family, home. They may have served in caring and support roles, particularly as nurses, or they may have been involved in other aspects of caring for men who were wounded, angry, afraid, helpless, or dying. Australian women have participated in past as well as recent wars in these and other active roles. Their roles have progressively increased, taking them to the “front lines” of the new forms of warfare, where they participate in fields of action alongside men.

These more direct roles for women have resulted from many aspects of social change, including moves to greater gender equity and the rights of women to participate in all such fields. There are several issues that emerge when considering “women at war” in this Australian context, with the focus on military operations including Vietnam, Middle East Operations, peacekeeping, Afghanistan, and present military engagements. There are important gains, as well as significant challenges. This chapter will examine a series of themes in this Australian context: the gender equity domain and its significance and development; the experiences of women in terms of their health and well-being; the evolution and success of women’s diverse contributions and ongoing challenges; and women in leadership.

As noted in a recent review, closing the global gender gap involves levels of economic participation, education attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment—all goals that are critical but not easy to attain (Abuelaish, 2013). Deep cultural beliefs and expectations may lead to a resistance to change. Gender-related cultural issues have been very relevant in Australia, as elsewhere. War has been “men’s business,” and men have viewed this role as facing battle, fighting for their country with other men and against identified enemy men, and protecting women from the horrors, violence, death, terror, and destruction of war. The “protection” of women has been described in other cultural domains. Women’s contributions have been in support roles, particularly those of nursing and healthcare, and these “caregiver” roles have also been a core component of the Australian culture of gender and “women’s place” more broadly. Men and women have valued these roles. It could be that these roles defined men’s and women’s “places” in the world of war, as in life more broadly, and were viewed with a simplicity and clarity that was familiar and reassuring. “Equity” has been assumed to be the sameness of roles, which is not necessarily equality (Raphael, 1974). The move to greater equity has led to recognition of its rather greater complexity, challenging interpretation and adaptation for both women and men. For men, the cohesion and mateship of mutual support, shared experience, and looking after one another have also represented broader Australian cultural values. “Mateship,” or camaraderie, among men is a powerful component of identity, community, strength, and maleness.

Women’s place at the “home front,” caring for children and family, has also been a strong cultural identity. The acceptability of the role of nursing was separate; military nursing was seen as a woman’s role particularly, but also one where bravery, being close to conflict, was recognized and valued. Men and women found that these roles synchronized with their beliefs and experience of the broader Australian culture of those times.

It should be noted, however, that the exception of women “not being directly involved in combat activities” or direct offensive action against the enemy was not always fulfilled. Women in the Special Operations Executive (SOE)—for instance Nancy Wake, the Australian agent—fulfilled this role with courage and exceptional achievements. Women who were prisoners of war showed similar courage and achievement in the face of the enemy.

The progress of equity goals, through the “women’s movements” to the present day, has brought for some women greater levels of equity in education, employment, political achievement, and health. However, economic achievement, in terms of women’s pay equity, is still lagging behind, and women’s achievement in executive or supervisory roles, in business and politics, is often sorely challenged.

Women’s roles in the Australian Defence Forces (ADF) have, on the whole, progressed positively, but resistance and difficulties still remain. These link closely to issues in many areas of Australian culture, as well as in organizational cultures, at least covertly. Such themes have been highlighted in a number of widely publicized incidents of “unacceptable behaviors” of men toward women in the ADF. These are also, to some degree, present in other organizations and domains, not only in terms of men’s behavior toward women, but also, at times, women’s expectations and “acceptance” of such diminished status. Domestic violence, sexual harassment, and assault are part of this spectrum in Australia, as elsewhere. And sadly, this is sometimes difficult to change.

It is important to recognize that the value system of the Australian Defence Force represents the society from which its members are drawn. While the ADF sets its aims to be higher than these, as could be considered appropriate, it can be difficult to sustain such goals if broader social influences operate overtly or covertly to erode such values, as exemplified, for instance with cyber-bullying, pornography, sexting, and so forth.

Review: Sex Discrimination in the ADF

In response to a number of distressing and widely publicized incidents, the Australian Human Rights Commission, under the leadership of Sexual Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick, has carried out a review of the treatment of women at the Australian Defence Force and the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA). The Academy deals with Army, Navy, and Air Force cadets, 21%–22% of whom (of 1,071 cadets) currently are women. The majority of senior roles in this organization are held by men (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2011). The review was carried out using meetings, submissions, and surveys, utilizing interviews and qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The review found that while there was a significant improvement in the culture of gender compared to an earlier review, there were still major issues, such as the need for more women in leadership roles, education regarding the value of equity and diversity, gender relations, complaints processes, and provisions for women’s health and well-being. Even though many women identified their roles and experience as very positive, there was evidence of disproportionate levels of gender- and sex-related harassment and incidents of assault and abuse (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2011). These issues are also relevant for women in other organizational settings, such as colleges, though they may be less in the public eye.

The recommendations of the review identified the need for the Chiefs of Services to take strong roles in promoting cultural change in gender equity, roles, and purpose; the value and importance for the future of Australian Defence Forces of equity and diversity; and the importance of women for the ADF (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2012). The responses of senior leaders in Defence to this review and the report have been rapid and strong, with a clear commitment to action.

BOX 3.1

KEY PRINCIPLES FOR SUCCESS IDENTIFIED BY THE REVIEW

1. Strong leadership to drive reform

2. Diversity in leadership to increase capability

3. Increasing numbers require increasing opportunities.

4. Greater flexibility to strengthen the ADF (again, this is considered to be an area where the ADF has responded and demonstrated leadership above and beyond the rest of the community)

The ADF has now enabled strategies (albeit with “special measures” temporary exemption from the Gender Discrimination Act 2012) to not only develop gender diversity as a policy but also to actually implement the changes required.

5. Gender-based harassment and violence ruin lives, divide teams, and damage capacity.

The strategies and targets proposed highlight the pathways to achieve such cultural change and its values (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2012).

The review also highlighted how women valued their roles and opportunities in the ADF, and their readiness and wishes to contribute across all domains, including in the front line, where they will be able to contribute in combat directly, and to make these contributions as they do now, with competence, commitment, and courage, alongside men.

The strength of the leadership role from the ADF and, specifically, the head of the Army, is illustrated by Major General David Morrison’s response and commitment to positive change, as exemplified by the “e-brief” he gave to the Army (Chief of Army, 2013). This statement was passionate, clear, and determined—it went “viral,” bringing an intense, positive response by the millions who viewed it across the world, including from international Service groups. The speech made very clear that this was not just a gender issue, but a core issue of respect and tolerance, for women as well as men. It was perhaps the first time, however, that women in the ADF (or indeed elsewhere in our community) had heard such a senior leader speak with such authority and clarity about why women are important and why respect and tolerance are core values (see Box 3.1).

To quote from Major-General David Morrison AM:

I have stated categorically many times that the Army has to be an inclusive organisation in which every Soldier man and woman is able to reach their full potential and is encouraged to do so. Our Service has been engaged in continuous operations since 1999 and in its longest war ever in Afghanistan, on all operations, female Soldiers and Officers have proven themselves worthy of the best traditions of the Australian Army, they are vital to us maintaining our capability now and into the future.

I will be ruthless in ridding the Army of people who cannot live up to its values, and I need every one of you to support me in achieving this. “The standard you walk past is the standard you accept”—that goes for all of us, but especially those who by their rank have a leadership role. If we are a great national institution; If we care about the legacy left to us by those who have served before us; If we care about the legacy we leave to those who in turn will protect and secure Australia—then, it is up to us to make a difference! Those involved in such issues, and those specifically linked to adverse incidents have been subsequently stood down from the Defence organisation following a full enquiry. (Australian Government, Department of Defence, Army, 2013)

War does not injure, maim, and harm only male participants. Australian women have been killed on ADF operations and have sustained serious injuries, including combat-related injuries. Women are also affected by the “unseen” wounds of war, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression, which may not become apparent until many years after their service (Neuhaus & Crompvoets, 2013).

As the ADF expands both the number and roles of women, the profile of service-related injury and/or the health effects of service can also be expected to change. Expanded roles for women bring new physical demands, in both training and operational environments, such as those that come with wearing heavy body armor on active patrols. In addition, new operational environments may also harbor as yet unidentified risks—such as to fertility or mental health (Neuhaus & Crompvoets, 2013).

There are no published data relating to health outcomes in Australian women who served in either the Boer War or World War I. During World War II, over 130 Australian Servicewomen died either overseas or in Australia. However, most collective health outcome data relates to the specific cohort of female prisoners of war, interred by the Japanese during the Pacific campaign. As with the other prisoner of war (POW) camps, living conditions for the women were extremely harsh. Women were affected by the same diseases as men: tuberculosis, dysentery, and malnutrition. Although not made to undertake hard labor, as male POWs were, the women were subjected to beatings and torture and threats of sexual violence. Eight Australian women died in POW camps (Nurse survivors of Japanese hell camps, 1945). The surviving POWs carried the emotional and physical scars of their internment for life.

Following the Vietnam conflict, the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) published a landmark study reporting health outcomes of the Australian Vietnam Veteran Female Cohort. Despite the small sample size and incomplete cohort, the data suggested some gender-specific health consequences of Vietnam deployment, most notable in terms of asthma/dermatitis, depression/panic attacks, and obstetric outcomes (stillbirth/labor complications) (Commonwealth Department of Veterans Affairs, 1998).

Over the last two decades, an increasing number of Australian Servicewomen have been involved in a range of peacekeeping and peace enforcement operations. The gender-specific health challenges facing this contemporary cohort have yet to be addressed.

New Generations of Australian Women in the ADF and Veterans

International research has shown that the latest generations of female veterans may face growing occupational challenges and unique threats to their physical and mental health. Female veterans are not included as a subgroup in the national women’s health agenda and are not represented in either the 1989 or 2010 National Women’s Health Policies. As a consequence, female veterans remain a largely invisible subgroup of Australian women with particular needs will their problems appropriately addressed (Neuhaus & Crompvoets, 2013).

The percentage of women in the military is increasing, with women comprising 13.8% of Australia’s Defence Force, 14.6% of the US military, and 9.1% of the British Armed Forces (Crompvoets, 2012). The increasing proportion of females who are veterans of peacekeeping and peace-enforcement operations, or of war, has instigated new questions about their health and well-being needs and their use of healthcare services.

Australian women have contributed to a number of Australian Defence Force (ADF) operations over the last decade, including Operations Slipper (Middle East Area of Operations), Astute (East Timor), and Anode (Solomon Islands). In 2011 women comprised 10.2% (n = 1,033) of the total personnel deployed across these three major operations (Crompvoets, 2012).

Recent Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) statistics indicate that 8,090 female veterans hold white/gold cards, compared with 131,826 male veterans (DVA 2013).(Gold cards: This card is issued to those veterans of Australia’s defence force, their widows/widowers and dependants entitled to treatment for all medical conditions) (White cards: A white Repatriation health card for specific conditions provides access to health services for conditions accepted as related to service). These numbers only represent those who have approached DVA with accepted claims, not the wider veteran community or those with claims being processed.

Post-discharge, DVA does not provide direct services, with the exception of the Veterans and Veterans Families Counselling Service (VVCS), since responsibility for Repatriation Hospitals has been transferred to state public hospital systems. DVA is rather the funder of a range of services and benefits. (In the past, DVA has not taken an active role in initiating contact with former members, but has waited for former members to contact them. Recently, however, DVA has run active campaigns for former members, and now also runs a transition program for those leaving Defence.)

There can be a time lag between when veterans exit the military and when they might access DVA services or entitlements. Given that DVA has historically met the needs of a largely male client base, and little information to date has been known about the needs of female veterans, what this treatment population might look like in the future is largely unknown.

The major gender-specific health issues facing contemporary Servicewomen and female veterans can be divided into three broad categories:

1. Physical standards, physiological training, and performance requirements. As indicated by Neuhaus and Crompvoets (2013), while there has been a move to “fitness for task” assessments, there are significant physiological and biomechanical demands in training and performance, and these impact differently on male and female bodies. Women are at risk of musculoskeletal injury and stress fractures (particularly when subject to military load carriage requirements, such as the 40–60 kg requirements in recent deployments to Afghanistan). Female recruits are also at risk of training-induced menstrual irregularity and subsequent osteoporosis. It is suggested that these and other physical factors, such as poorly fitting body armor, not necessarily shaped for women’s bodies, may contribute to the lasting health impacts of musculoskeletal injury, pelvic floor instability, and possibly in the longer term, incontinence (Orr, Johnston, Coyle, & Pope, 2011; Yoram, 2012). There are similar gaps in understanding the physical re-conditioning issues that confront women returning to active service after delivery or breastfeeding.

2. Sexual and reproductive health. While sexual trauma has been an issue that has recently come to the fore, the extent and nature of such trauma and the associated impacts on women’s health and well-being have not been adequately researched. Services specifically tuned to women’s health needs, including sexual and reproductive health, are not well developed. As highlighted by Neuhaus and Crompvoets (2013), issues such as those of contraception, menstruation regulation during deployment, and post-deployment fertility are not well addressed. Some circumstances could also contribute further to risk, for example exposure to toxic substances that could impact on a woman’s capacity to become pregnant and/or have potential effects on the developing fetus.

The effects of deployment for women with dependent children need to be better understood, particularly as current data suggest that many women separate from the ADF once on maternity leave (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2012).

These and potentially other issues highlight the fact that women’s health in service (ADF) environments and following deployment needs to be more specifically addressed.

3. Mental health and well-being. The actual and potential mental health issues for women in service roles need to be specifically addressed (Ferrier et al., 2010). These include the impact of traumatic exposures, such as life threat and the deaths of others, which can lead to acute or delayed onset disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, and panic attacks. Women may also be vulnerable if they have experienced earlier adversities, particularly abuse or neglect in childhood. Studies currently being finalized with Australian cohorts will shed further light on such mental health issues (McFarlane & Hodson, 2011; Wade et al., 2013, Dobson et al., 2013).

Challenges to mental health and well-being also arise with parental roles during deployments and separation from children, with concerns and possibly vulnerabilities for mothers and dependent children. Although many mothers deploying may find their time away a positive experience, there are sequelae for the family structure that require further investigation. These issues also require special healthcare responses (McFarlane, 2009; McFarlane & Hodson, 2011; Davy et al., 2012)

Health Services

Women’s access to services attuned to their specific needs is an ongoing issue. Services have been well developed for men, but are now challenged to make specific adaptations to women’s health needs as veterans. It is also often difficult for women to take on the “veteran” identity, as that has been so closely linked to older male veterans; only with recent deployments has it been linked to younger men—and women. Crompvoets reported on her three-year study of female Vietnam and contemporary women veterans (Crompvoets 2012). This in-depth empirical research included women deployed to Vietnam, Rwanda, the Gulf War, Cambodia, Timor Leste, Bougainville, Solomon Islands, Iraq, and Afghanistan. She also interviewed other key stakeholders, for instance from health and counseling services. She found that while women greatly valued their roles, there were significant barriers for these women in terms of appropriate support and service resources. Barriers also included the “lack of an authentic veteran identity” (p. vi), lack of trust regarding the understanding of women’s needs and responses to these, and lack of knowledge and information about specific issues important for women such as “maternal separation, reproductive and gynaecological health, domestic violence, lesbian, transgender” (and also “military sexual trauma”).

Tracking health issues over time and building appropriate prevention, early intervention, and women’s health programs to meet acute as well as delayed onset health problems are critical. As proposed by Neuhaus and Crompvoets (2013), there is the need to develop “best practice guidelines for the treatment of female veterans” (p. 531), as well as education, support, and resources for female veterans.

Australian women in military uniform have often had to fight not one, but two wars. They have contended with the powerful pressures and constraints of society, and they have encountered barriers in pursuing their chosen profession—the profession of arms. Thus the narrative stories of their service have not always permeated into broader society. Most Australian children know of John Kirkpatrick Simpson who, with his donkey, transported injured men up and down Shrapnel Gully to the beach and safety during the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign of World War I.

Similarly, most Australians know of Sir Edward “Weary” Dunlop AC, CMG, OBE, the former Australian rugby player who was captured by the Japanese during World War II. Weary’s care for other prisoners of war in horrific circumstances, and his feats of surgery with no equipment and under the most hostile conditions, are legendary. However, few would know the stories of Phoebe Chapple MM, Australia’s first woman to be awarded the Military Medal—earned as a doctor on the Western Front in World War I. Fewer still would know of Major Josephine (Mabel) Mackerras, an entomologist with the Army Malaria Research Unit during World War II, whose work earned the citation, in an application for King’s Birthday Honours, “Few women can have made a greater contribution to the Allied war effort” (Dennis & Grey, 2004), or of Captain Carol Vaughan Evans MG, the only woman to be awarded a Medal of Gallantry under the Australian Honours system, following her service in Rwanda following the Kibheo massacre (Neuhaus & Mascall-Dare, 2013).

In part, this is because the prevailing narratives of Australia’s military history have privileged male voices over women’s. Women’s voices have been absent or silent. In large part also, the narrative of Australian women at war has been dominated by the stories of Australian nurses. In recent years an increasing number of books, films, and other media productions have documented the role of Australian nurses in war. In 2011–2012 the Australian War Memorial exhibition entitled “Nurses: from Zululand to Afghanistan” showcased the service of these women, relating the hardships they endured and their sacrifice and bravery. The exhibition included the story of Sister Vivian Bullwinkel, who served with the Australian Army Nursing Service in the Pacific Campaign of World War II. In 1942, following the fall of Singapore, Vivian was among 65 army nurses attempting to return to Australia on the ship SS Vyner Brooke; 12 were drowned when their vessel was torpedoed and 21 were massacred after reaching Banka Island, where the Japanese ordered the nurses into the sea and shot them with machine guns from behind. Only one survived, Sister Vivian Bullwinkel. After hiding for days, she eventually gave herself up, as she had been shot and needed medical attention. After surrendering to Japanese forces, Bullwinkel was incarcerated in a POW camp for the duration of the war. Today, the story of Sister Bullwinkel and the “Paradise Road” nurses has become a resonant narrative of Australia’s female participation in World War II (Australian War Memorial, 2011–2012).

Such role models from the nursing profession are important: they continue to shape the attitudes of those men and women who follow in their footsteps. But they also sit comfortably with historical roles of women. The caring professions have always been seen as “women’s business,” and in this role, “war as men’s business” remains unchallenged. It is perhaps for this reason that few of the nontraditional narratives of women’s involvement in war have become widely recognized.

Two exceptions are the stories of Olive King, brought to light in Susanna De Vries’s book Heroic Australian Women at War (de Vries, 2004), and Nancy Wake, the so-called White Mouse. Olive King was an intrepid and determined young woman who served as a volunteer ambulance driver on the Serbian front in World War I. She drove and repaired her own ambulance, nicknamed “Ella the Elephant,” through perilous conditions, at a time when most women could not drive, far less seek adventure on a foreign battlefield. Nancy Wake was an intelligence operative in France during World War II and is arguably Australia’s greatest war heroine. These two narratives are unique in their “femme fatale” characteristics—a trait not shared by other female war service narratives.

Today, the role that women play in the military remains problematic and continues to be debated. We grapple with issues of “combat equality,” but distinctions between combat and non-combat roles have become less clear. Suicide bombers, rocket attacks, and improvised explosive devices do not discriminate by gender or by role. New roles—established in just two generations—have seen women move beyond traditional nursing roles into positions as pilots, engineers, mine-clearance experts, and commanders. We now deploy not just women into war zones, but wives and mothers, and this brings new challenges in terms of the perception of female roles—wife, mother, and Soldier—and of the consequences of harm and sacrifice.

Recognition of these roles has not yet entered mainstream Australian society, and female military service remains largely “invisible.” Women wearing service medals on ANZAC Day are frequently (albeit with naïveté) challenged as to their authenticity, veteran health entitlements are conflated with those of war widows, and there are few publicly recognizable female veteran role models. These factors combine to create a subtle, but nonetheless powerful, impression that female Veteran service has lesser value than male Veteran service in contemporary Australian society (Crompvoets, 2012).

In addition, there are some significant assumptions around opening up direct combat roles and/or Special Forces roles for women. This is an interesting space because the drivers for this extent of reform have largely come from outside the ADF. It has been assumed that women want these roles. However, the evidence is largely to the contrary; ADF women seek acceptance and “non-exclusion” and in principle believe that women should be able to undertake these roles if they are willing and meet the standards, but very few women (even from within the ADF) have come forward to apply (Less than 20 women seek frontline combat roles, 2013). This raises issues of “pioneer roles” but probably in fact is more a reflection that many women (as indeed applies to many men) do not actually want to take on some of these roles themselves.

Nevertheless, all these Servicewomen, past and present, are united by a common resolve, which crosses the generations from World War I to the present day. Each of them are or were women who were willing to leave behind families and friends—sometimes to seek adventure or to escape domestic routine, sometimes out of duty and “wanting to do their bit.” They are ordinary women, not necessarily militaristic or out to prove a point, but simply willing to put on the uniform of the Australian Defence Force and use their professional skills to support Australia’s Defence mandate and protect the peace that all Australians—men and women—hold so dear.

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