Browsing by Author "Van Wijk, Charles"

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    Gender integration of male dominated environments : the experience of SA Navy sailors
    (2005) Van Wijk, Charles
    During the 1990s, the South African Navy integrated women into their ships. The present study investigated the psycho-social experiences of both women and men, in response to the integration of this traditionally male-dominated environment. This was done in two phases: First, the pre-integration atmosphere in the fleet was investigated by focussing on two specific objectives: examining the general attitudes of the fleet towards women's place in the world, and examining the manifestation of resistance by using sexual harassment as a marker. In the second phase, the personal experiences and the actual responses of women and men, emanating from their own involvement in gender integration, were investigated.
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    Sexual harassment of women in the South African Navy
    (2009) Van Wijk, Charles; Finchilescu, Gillian; Tredoux, Colin
    We report on a study that investigated sexual harassment within the South African Navy. We firstly used a survey to examine the prevalence of sexual harassment in the shore-based fleet, just prior to the gender integration of naval ships, and found evidence of widespread sexual harassment. Secondly, we used interviews and focus groups to examine the experiences of sexual harassment on ships one year after gender integration, and found a relative absence of sexual harassment. A number of contributing factors are considered (e.g. methodological issues, organisational factors, contextual constructions of masculinity), before informal mechanisms of behaviour regulation (e.g. the enactment of informal discipline, and sailors' use of metaphors) are introduced as mechanisms to understand the differences between the survey and interview findings. We argue that using divergent methodological approaches would lead to a more nuanced understanding of the experiences around sexual harassment on navy ships.