GENDER DISPARITIES IN ENFORCING THE HONOR CONCEPT AT U.S. THE NAVAL ACADEMY.

Women were first admitted to the United States Naval Academy in 1976. This occurred after turbulent congressional hearings that resulted in President Ford's signature of a public law mandating that women be admitted to all Department of Defense military academies.(1) The first cohort of women included 81 members, of which 55 went on to graduate in 1980.(2) Although their numbers have steadily increased, today women comprise only 10% of the brigade of midshipmen.(3) Their ongoing presence as a minority population continues to raise important questions about the extent to which they have been integrated.

Prior research on women's integration has focused primarily on changing gender role attitudes in the formerly all-male, educational/ military institutions of the Military Academy, the Naval Academy, and the Air Force Academy.(4) Social scientists first approached the entry of women from the perspective of previous research on racial integration in the military during World War II, which found that racial prejudice decreased among whites in integrated platoons because they had close associations with African-Americans.(5) In examining gender, researchers hypothesized that men in sex-integrated companies would be less prejudiced towards women than men in all-male companies. A 1976 study conducted on the Naval Academy's first gender integrated-class measured midshipmen's sex role attitudes prior to contact with women and then examined attitudes a second time at the end of the first academic year.(6) The results were mixed. Men in integrated squads or platoons developed the most egalitarian gender attitudes whereas men in mixed companies, but not mixed platoons or squads, were the most traditional. And men in all-male companies fell in between these two groups.

Research today continues to find that contact does not necessarily decrease prejudice towards the minority group if men and women do not initially agree on the changing roles of women.(7) In other words, studies have demonstrated that, in general, men attending the academies have very traditional attitudes about women's roles, particularly their ability to serve as effective military leaders. In contrast, women entering the academies hold nontraditional gender role attitudes. Furthermore, differences in the types of leadership positions available to women (e.g. combat positions) not only fail to create an atmosphere in which men and women are seen as equals but may actually exacerbate conflicts.(8) In comparing these findings to research documenting the relative success of minority men's integration, it has been argued that racial integration is different from sex integration in the military because male minorities were members of the military for years and occupied similar but segregated positions to their white male counterparts.(9) Women, however, have historically been a very small group in the military and have served in limited positions (e.g. nursing).(10)

Regarding women's presence as a relatively small group, Rosabeth Kanter's landmark study on women's entry into large male-dominated civilian corporations provides continued insight into the unique status of women in the military given their presence, as Kanter would describe it, as "a token population."(11) Her basic premise is that gender role attitudes about women are unlikely to change as long as sex ratios are imbalanced,(12) because when sex ratios are imbalanced in working environments, the members of the minority sex become highly visible and this, in turn, increases polarization between men and women. In addition to high visibility, women who are tokens find themselves pressured to perform, socially isolated, and stereotyped as "feminine."(13)

In light of Kanter's observations about token populations as well as prior research on women's entry into the service academies, the purpose of this article is to examine the enforcement of the Naval Academy's Honor Concept as an indicator of gender integration.(14) The Honor Concept is a formal set of guidelines designed to ensure that midshipmen behave honorably in all places and at all times. This opens two lines of inquiry: 1) the extent to which women are reported by peers for violations of the Honor Concept, and 2) factors that explain women's representation as alleged honor violators. With regard to the latter, these factors will be compared to Kanter's observations about the environmental and social conditions unique to women's status as a token population.

No research to date examines the extent to which a system of formal social control, such as the Honor Concept, is differentially enforced based on gender, and thus this study may provide a significant contribution to the literature on women's integration. Rather than looking at attitudes as an indicator of gender integration, I examine the act of reporting peers for alleged honor violations and whether gender is a consideration. If gender were irrelevant, one would expect to find the proportion of women reported for honor violations to be equal to their proportion in the brigade population. However, prior research demonstrates that although progress has been made, women have not yet been successfully integrated.(15) Consequently, one would expect to find gender disparities in the enforcement of the Honor Concept.

In addition to gender, racial disparities are also briefly examined. However, the study treats gender as a more salient factor in social differentiation than race for four reasons. First, although minority men did not attend the Academy in large numbers until the 1970s, they were first admitted in 1872, almost 100 years prior to women's entry. Second, women are physically differentiated at the Academy, while minority men are not. In addition to receiving company and room assignments based on gender, women are more readily visible because their uniforms are significantly different. A third reason for focusing on women is that they are significantly underrepresented at the Naval Academy relative to their proportion in the general public. Women comprise only 10% of the brigade population, while 20% of midshipmen are racial minorities. Finally, prior research documents that the integration of minority men has been relatively successful compared to the integration of women, although racial integration is far from complete.(16) This article, therefore, acknowledges that women continue to face challenges as a token population that is qualitatively different from minority men. Race is discussed only in reference to gender when relevant comparisons shed light on women's unique status.