What kind of difference does it make to have women leading the defense industry? On WBEZ’s Worldview, reporter Julian Hayda interviews Cynthia Enloe, renowned for her work on feminist international relations and gender and militarism.
When asked whether it makes a difference to have women as CEOs in the top four U.S. defense industry companies, Enloe states that, “it doesn’t necessary change the arms industry. …
“Women who work their way up in any kind of corporation generally have spent years, even decades, in those corporations. It’s very hard to resist the socialization that any of us experience when we’ve been with a company or industry for that many years.
“So these women, who have now reached the CEO positions in these four big American arms producing companies, they aren’t like [for comparison] the women who have come into Congress. [These CEOs] have been thoroughly socialized in the propriety of producing arms and trying to make profits of selling arms. …
“What they might do is they may have a different way of being an executive. They may have an awareness of the need for all their employees to balance family and company responsibilities. … They may have a different approach to negotiation, and not whether you’re aggressive or not aggressive but what kind of homework you’ve done to suss out the people that you’re negotiating with—that’s very important. So it really may affect how the company does business. But I don’t think it will change the arms industry.”
Hear more from Cynthia’s interview. And see Cynthia’s books below on patriarchy and militarism.
