IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/gender/v33y2026i2p594-609.html

Female Veteran Transition: Exploring Gendered Power Relations, Discipline and Decision Making

Author

Listed:
  • Caroline Micklewright
  • Robert A. Allen

Abstract

This paper investigates how military life affects the decision making of female RAF veterans during transition into the civilian world. By adopting a longitudinal approach and analyzing interviews conducted over 3 years this study explores the relationship between how normalized gendered militarized behaviors and idealized military aspirational identities affect choices made during transition out of the military. Disruptions to this idealized identity brought on by the decision to leave the military trigger recognition of and adjustments to the sense of self. Female veterans' consistency of self is supported through this disruption by drawing on deeply valued aspects of aspirational identity while rejecting others. The study has contributed to theory by demonstrating how gendered discipline and power combine to influence female veterans’ ways of being and support aspects of aspirational identities as they transition into civilian life and face disruptions caused by differences in gendered expectations within military and wider society. By design, this research focused on a limited number of female veterans' experiences as they left the RAF, allowing a hitherto underexplored veteran cohort to be better understood.

Suggested Citation

  • Caroline Micklewright & Robert A. Allen, 2026. "Female Veteran Transition: Exploring Gendered Power Relations, Discipline and Decision Making," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 594-609, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:33:y:2026:i:2:p:594-609
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.70062
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.70062
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/gwao.70062?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:33:y:2026:i:2:p:594-609. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0968-6673 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.