FEMININITY AND MILITARY CAREERS OF POLISH WOMEN. A STUDY OF THE EXPERIENCES OF WOMEN IN THE OFFICER’S RANK

Abstract

The process of military participation of Polish women began when Poland joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The paper addresses the issue of construction of military professional career by women in the officer’s rank. The study aimed at reconstructing the professional experience of women in the military officer corps and analysing the processes of their career development. The research group consisted of 31 female soldiers holding officer ranks. An individual semi-structured interview was used, consisting of a narrative part and a free interview part with a list of information pieces sought in the form of an interview scenario, created on the basis of detailed research questions. This paper focuses on the part of the results concerning the experiences related to the female soldiers’ perceptions of their own position and professional role, and the meanings given to the notion of military career. The study found that only about half of female soldiers believe that they have pursued, are pursuing, or are beginning to pursue a career. The study reveals that the ambiguity of the patterns inherent in the concept of female soldierhood leads to an internal split in the way of defining oneself as a female soldier.