The characteristics of women soldiers’ profession socialization, integration, adaptation and their emphasized fields of manifestation in the different types of corps

Abstract

The acceptance of women soldiers still poses questions in the organization of Hungarian Defence Forces although they are more than a countable amount of active members in the last decade. Besides this, their professional socialization in military jobs could be problematic in some ways. Professional socialization is highly influenced by the type of corps (fighting; fight–supporting; serving–supporting) where the woman soldier fulfils her duty, because henceforth she will adapt herself to the requirements and expectations of the corps in question. In order to map the differences of the corps from this aspect we have organized focus groups and by doing this our “hidden aim” was to promote the acceptance of women soldiers and facilitate them in their socialization. As a result we have gained information on the problematic points of adaptation, also the specification of the different types of corps from this point of view. These data will be shown and interpreted in this article.