Sex, Gender and Cultural Intelligence in the Canadian Forces

Abstract

Cultural awareness, along with the capacity to effectively develop and apply cultural knowledge, has become critical for military leaders. Based on a multi-dimensional model of cultural intelligence and a review of selected aspects of the Canadian Forces' (CF) experience with gender integration, this paper highlights implications for the development of culturally intelligent military leaders and teams. The gendered evolution of the CF in recent decades has been critical in preparing the CF for the complexity of challenges that it faces today. In spite of progress, significant resistance to expanded roles for women has been based upon the assumption that gender is a dichotomous biologically determined construct. On the other hand, the institutional discourse that has developed in the face of legal imperatives permitting women to join the combat arms since 1989 claims that the CF is gender neutral. The analysis presented in this paper suggests that such limited constructs of gender act to reduce the capacity of the CF to develop cultural intelligence, a critical contributor to mission success, among male and female members.

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