Seminar Series Focuses on Gender, Human Rights, and Security

This fall, Associate Professor of Public Policy Dara Kay Cohen launched the Gender and Security Seminar Series, bringing together leading experts from academia and the policy world to discuss their research at the intersection of gender, human rights, and security. The series is co-sponsored by four centers at Harvard Kennedy School—the Belfer Center, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Carr Center for Human Rights, and Women and Public Policy Program.

In addition to the seminar with former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, who discussed his rationale and strategy for opening up all U.S. military combat roles to women (see adjacent article), Cohen hosted Andreas Kotsadam, a senior researcher at Norway’s Frisch Centre who examines whether placement of women within a traditionally male-dominated environment can change gendered attitudes.

Kotsadam described research with the military in Norway, where female recruits were randomly assigned to some squads during boot camp. They found that living and working with women for eight weeks caused men to adopt more egalitarian attitudes. For example, for the men in the mixed groups, there was a 14 percent increase in thinking mixed-gender teams perform as well or better than same-gender teams. There was no evidence that integrating women hurt male recruits’ satisfaction with boot camp or plans to continue in the military.