Gender Composition and Crew Cohesion During Long-Duration Space Missionswomen had either a positive or a neutral effect on the type of cohesion present in
military units. This model of cohesion takes into account team factors such as inter-
dependence, unit identity, personnel stability, communications, and leadership.^44
Similarly, Robert Vecchio and Donna Brazil’s survey of nearly 2,000 U.S. armed ser-
vices cadets indicated that increases in the number of women in a squad were not
associated with any decreases in squad-level measures of cohesion.^45 In the avia-
tion domain, an even better analog to spaceflight, the relationship between gender
and cohesion is less clear. For example, four-person teams of students from a Florida
university, flying an F-22 flight simulation, exhibited higher levels of interpersonal
cohesion when the teams were of the same gender. Furthermore, this increased
interpersonal cohesion helped to enhance coordination between team members,
leading to improved performance.^46
Clearly, additional empirical investigations are warranted to more completely
define how gender heterogeneity in teams affects cohesion. In lieu of controlled
research, a tenable approach is to survey personnel from space and analog set-
tings, although very few studies using this approach have specifically focused on
cohesion. For example, according to Rosnet and colleagues, including women in
wintering groups at polar stations “seems to have positive effects on the general cli-
mate of the group by partly limiting men’s rude behavior, but it also seems to be an
important stressor for both men and women when the females’ average age is close
to the males’.”^47 Similarly, a former commander of the U.S. Naval Support Force
Antarctica, who had experienced both all-male winter-over missions and gender-
integrated stays, reported that women had a stabilizing effect on personnel and
believed these heterogeneous groups were more productive than all-male groups.^48
In space, an American woman who lived aboard the ISS reported that the crew
- V. J. Saimons, “Women in Combat: Are the Risks to Combat Effectiveness Too Great?”
Monograph Report No. AD A258 247 (Fort Leavenworth, KS: U.S. Army Command and
General Staff College, School of Advanced Military Studies, 1992). - Robert P. Vecchio and Donna M. Brazil, “Leadership and Sex-Similarity: A Comparison in
a Military Setting,” Personnel Psychology 60, no. 2 (2007): 303–335. - Frederick-Jorge Panzer, “The Influence of Gender and Ethnic Diversity on Team
Effectiveness,” Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering 64, no.
3-B (2003): 1534. - Rosnet et al., “Mixed-gender Groups”: C12.
- Stuster, Bold Endeavors, p. 178.