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Event Description

This PhD exit seminar will provide an overview of the research aim, research objectives, methodology, the gendered nature of military service and findings.

Abstract

A multi-subject qualitative study using semi-structured interviews was conducted with three cohorts: Australian Army servicewomen, Australian Army commanders and managers, and Defence general practitioners. This research explores what it means to serve in the Australian Army as a woman through a gender lens, overlaid during specific life stages of their service; that is, during pregnancy, birth and motherhood. It explores the nature of maternal healthcare provided to servicewomen of the Australian Army. It also investigates the demands faced by servicewoman who are mothers, and how they internally make sense of that with respect to their own identity and the various roles they do or are expected to undertake. It also seeks to uncover how Australian Army servicewomen who are mothers attempt to manage the dilemma of serving two greedy institutions, when both expect and demand so much and whether this is in fact, an impossible dilemma.

Speaker Biography

Maureen is a senior Army psychologist undertaking a part-time PhD on gender culture in the Australian Army through an investigation of women’s experience of pregnancy, birth and motherhood. Maureen has worked at the tactical, operational and strategic environment within the Australian Army, providing psychological advice and interventions to individuals, units and Commanders. She has done so within Australia and on operational deployments to Timor-Leste, the Solomon Islands and the Middle East. Maureen has presented her research both domestically and internationally. Most notably at the Australasian Military Medicine Association conferences, the Australian Sociological Association conference and the Gender, Work and Organization conference.