NPR's Morning Edition reported today that a federal appeals court has frozen a judge's order to halt the military's "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy. The Department of Defense (DOD), one of the world's largest bureaucracies, claims that a change as drastic as repealing DADT will take time. The military would have to re-write it's sexual harassment policies (gasp), reconcile potential changes in partner benefits (oh my!), and undergo sensitivity training (shocking!). The military has requested a temporary freeze until they can undergo an internal review, which is scheduled to be completed in early December (yeah right world's largest bureaucracy).
I interpreted this response from the DOD as an issue regarding the modification of the practices and communicative processes of organizational socialization. Scholars like Acker (1990), Buzzanell (1994), Martin (2000), and Alvesson and Billings (2009), among others, state that organizations are not gender neutral let alone the theories that are used to research them. Gender is a pervasive theme and constant communicative process in organizational life. Bullis and Stout (2000) contribute to this discussion by identifying key areas where standpoint feminism can make a contribution specifically in terms of organizational socialization: absent referents, outsiders within, marginalized people, process, outcomes, and contexts; localized contextual positions, and institutions and processes beyond contained organizations. With these ideas in mind, I pose the following questions:
1.) How would a standpoint feminist approach critique the DOD's response to repealing DADT?
2.) How could a standpoint feminist approach be used in terms of implementing DADT changes at the DOD?
3.) As org comm scholars what advice would we offer the DOD?
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