Badass marines: Resistance practices against the introduction of women in the Dutch military

Abstract

AbstractGender and diversity interventions often do not have the planned effect, at least partly because of resistance. As a result, resistance is predominantly perceived as a negative to overcome. Contributing to theories on resistance to gender change, this paper increases our understanding of resistance practices and explores how these contribute to organizational change. Drawing on a case study in the Dutch military, we present a fine‐grained analysis of the discursive resistance practices to the introduction of women in a previously men‐only military unit. The paper brings together three strands of literature: on gender interventions, on organizational resistance, and on hegemonic military masculinity to unpack the nuances in resistance. We highlight the ambiguities and contradictions in the discursive resistance practices, and explicate how these entail shifts in organizational gender beliefs and the discourse on hegemonic military masculinity. We conclude that instead of trying to avoid resistance, there is a need to better understand what kind of change resistance is already putting into motion.