Date of Award

January 2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Sociology

First Advisor

Daphne Pedersen

Abstract

Women have never formally served in U.S. Army combat roles. It was announced in December, 2015 that U.S. Army combat roles would undergo gender integration. The objective of this research was to measure attitudes of current all-male infantry units in the Minnesota Army National Guard (MNARNG). The research was framed using status expectations theory. Surveys were distributed to two MNARNG companies (N = 116). The research examined how infantrymen rated male and female soldiers differently on 14 traits as well as their support for female integration. The results showed that infantrymen rated men higher than women. In addition, men who rated women higher were more likely to support female integration. Half of the respondents (50.5%) strongly opposed female integration. Infantrymen largely oppose female integration and expect females to underperform males. This expectation of female abilities is consistent with status expectations theory.

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