«Il n’y a pas de place pour les petites princesses». Sociologie de l’engagement...

«Il n’y a pas de place pour les petites princesses». Sociologie de l’engagement volontaire féminin dans l’Armée suisse

Abstract

How does the military institution (re)produce social dominations ? Based on this initial question, this thesis focuses on women soldiers engaged within the Swiss Army. This engagement, socially improbable because of the mismatch between the gendered characteristics of individuals and those of the institution, could support a “transgressive” approach to gender norms and roles. These women also penetrate an environment marked by a conservative ideology : historically thought for and by men, the army is identified as an authority of socialization to social dominations, and puts in place mechanisms by which the dominant and the dominated are created. This thesis analyses the learning processes of social roles and norms, mainly gender related, of women voluntarily enrolled in the Swiss Army – unlike men who are required to serve. These women face an institutional setting, a specific gender regime, which considers them as misfits or even intruders. By crossing the meso- (gender regime of the institution) and the micro-sociological (characteristics and dispositions of individuals) levels of analysis, and by using qualitative (ethnographic observations, interviews) and quantitative (questionnaire) methods, this research explores how women appropriate the Swiss military culture and how it contributes to forging their political relation to the social world. This analysis shows how these appropriations are differentiated and are linked to the prior socialization of individuals, as well as to their position(s) within the institution. I find that military women have profiles and worldviews pre-adjusted to the army ; military service thus acts as an authority of socialization who reinforces ways of being, acting, doing and thinking, marked by beliefs in meritocracy and in the separation, differentiation and hierarchy of the sexes.

Keywords

• army
• military institution
• political socialization
• gender socialization
• gender
• gender regime
• political relation to the social world