Female Specialists as Operational Enablers for Special Operations Forces? – A Pilot Study among Danish Military Linguists

Abstract

This article aims to show the many ways gender are important when performing the role as military interpreter/cultural advisor as a specialist attached to a SOF team. Based on interviews with male and female specialists and SOF operators in an exploratory pilot study conducted in Denmark, the article discusses female specialists as “the newcomers” in SOF. Female specialists navigate their gender identity in order to obtain acceptance in the team. The operational advantage of deploying female specialists with SOF teams is their ability to “constitute no threat” to men around them. The data in this study suggest that female specialists can facilitate better communication between parties in operations. The article argues that concerns over the female specialist as an object for overwhelming male attention can be substituted with her role as a competent professional soldier.