Former army officer's studies helping to shape more inclusive military culture

Sunday, 5 January 2020

Former army officer Ellen Nelson has studied the experiences of female army officers.

A Massey University PhD graduate and former army officer's research is helping improve the New Zealand Army's culture towards women.

Manawatū woman Ellen Nelson graduated with her PhD in December, having studied the experiences of female army officers to find out how to improve their social wellbeing in the army.

Nelson served in the army for 10 years and was a captain, but left in 2013 to work under Massey's Sarah Leberman, Jo Bensemann and Andrew Dickson, as well as Lieutenant Colonel Jay McLeary.

Nelson found female officers had some incredible experiences, but also some negative, and she came up recommendations, which the army is reviewing.

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She presented her findings to senior army staff.

Nelson's short-term recommendations were the army provide uniform and equipment properly fitted for women, rather than using men's uniforms, using women in a more prominent role in recruiting ads, rather than in sedentary roles, and supporting pregnant women, both prenatal and postpartum.

'The army is a very physical job with a lot of fitness requirements. One of the issues identified in her research was there was not a lot of support in that area when pregnant or returning from maternity leave and the body hasn't quite bounced back.'

Nelson Ford taking on the obstacle course at Linton Army Camp in 2009, when she was an army lieutenant.

She also made long-term long-term recommendations and one was improving a culture of disrespect towards woman.

'It's around holding leaders to account more precisely in that area and just looking at ways they can better value women and all personnel, so the culture is one of the big ones.'

Another was providing safe channels for people to report harmful behaviour without fear of backlash.

Her research found examples of sexual harassment, sexual assault and other kinds of discrimination or mistreatment.

She said in order for the army to solve the problem, it had to understand the issue.

'I have actually been quite impressed that they are absolutely interested. I understand some of these recommendations I made have already been carried out.

'They took this as really important.'

The chief of army, Major General John Boswell, said they had been trying for years to attract more women and improve their experiences.

'Our women must be able to be themselves and feel safe, included and respected.

'We are proud of Ellen and her academic achievements, and appreciative that we can use her research to feed into our next major wave of work to improve the environment for our women.'

Despite her findings, Nelson was full of praise for the army.

'I think there's great opportunities for people in the organisation and I would love to help the organisation be better and and be better for women, which will benefit all involved.'