Gender and risk-taking attitudes in the Norwegian population: What about female conscription?

The presence of risk is a crucial and unavoidable feature of many military contexts and soldiers have to be both willing and able to not only encounter risk and uncertainty, but also master it. Correspondingly, the military... [ view full abstract ]

The presence of risk is a crucial and unavoidable feature of many military contexts and soldiers have to be both willing and able to not only encounter risk and uncertainty, but also master it. Correspondingly, the military system is part of the society at large and the cultural and social norms and values that are in place set limits and provide frames for how the military system operates. This influences both the attitudes toward risk among young soldiers and the normative frames and conditions for the military system. Norway is one of the few NATO countries left with compulsory military service, and the only one with female conscription (introduced in 2015). It is therefore of great interest to have information about the general attitudes towards risk and risk-taking in the various parts of the population, especially among the young women and men. Previous studies have indicated that men in general and young men in particular are more willing to take risks than their female counterparts, but risk is often measured in only one dimension or the studies have been carried out in relatively small samples groups with rather homogenous characteristics. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to examine risk-taking attitudes in the Norwegian population and to discuss potential implications for the Armed Forces with respect to the introduction of female conscription. The results presented are from a representative population study (n = 1.000) conducted by structured telephone interviews in February 2015. The study aimed to uncover baseline data on socio-demographic variables, physical activity practices, affiliation with the armed forces, and risk-taking attitudes in eight different domains: physical, political/military, social, intellectual, performance, financial, ethical/moral. The study is a part of a larger research project – Learning under Risk (LuR) – which is launched to increase the knowledge about risk and its meaning for military performance.