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Gender. Table 8.1 presents the breakdown by
gender and component of those deployed to Bosnia as compared to the Total Force. In general, women tended to be underrepresented in this mission as compared to their role in the active duty and Reserve
forces. For instance, while 14 percent of all active enlisted personnel are women, only 9 percent of the active enlisted forces sent to Bosnia were women. Similarly, underrepresentation of women serving in
Bosnia was found among the Active Component officer corps and both enlisted members and commissioned officers in the Selected Reserves. This is not due to any assignment bias against deploying women; rather, it
results from the occupational mix of military units in Bosnia. Occupational representation provides insight into the
underrepresentation of women among those members deployed to Bosnia. For instance, the two most frequently represented occupational categories were infantry and electrical. These two job clusters accounted
for approximately 46 percent of the troops deployed to the Bosnia region. Among enlisted women, however, only 13 percent hold jobs that are included in the occupational areas of electrical/mechanical equipment
repairers and infantry, gun crews, and seamanship.(2)
Therefore, the underrepresentation of women in Bosnia seems to be at least in part a function of the types of personnel required to carry out the missions of Operations Joint Endeavor and Joint Guard.
Table 8.1. Gender of FY 1997 Enlisted Personnel and Commissioned Officers
Deployed to Bosnia by Component
Compared to the Total Force (Percent) |
| |
Enlisted |
Officer |
Total |
Gender |
Active |
Reserve |
Total |
Active |
Reserve |
Total |
Active |
Reserve |
Total |
Bosnia |
Male |
90.7 |
90.4 |
90.7 |
92.0 |
86.8 |
90.4 |
90.9 |
88.9 |
90.6 |
Female |
9.3 |
9.6 |
9.3 |
8.0 |
13.2 |
9.6 |
9.1 |
11.1 |
9.4 |
Total |
100.0 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
Total Force |
Male |
86.3 |
85.2 |
85.9 |
85.9 |
82.1 |
84.5 |
86.2 |
84.8 |
85.7 |
Female |
13.7 |
14.8 |
14.1 |
14.2 |
17.9 |
15.5 |
13.8 |
15.2 |
14.3 |
Total |
100.0 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
Also see Appendix Tables E-1 (Active Enlisted by Gender), E-4 (Active Officer Corps by Gender), E-6 (Reserve Enlisted by Gender), and E-9 (Reserve Officer Corps by Gender) for numbers deployed to Bosnia and B-25 (Active Enlisted by Gender),
B-32 (Active Officer Corps by Gender), C-17 (Reserve Enlisted by Gender), and C-25
(Reserve Officer Corps by Gender) for Total Force comparisons. |
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- Although women do not serve in infantry positions, they do serve in other positions, such as gun crews, air crews, and
seamanship positions, which are included in the "infantry" occupational area.
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