The impact of new technologies on women's military service: cybersecurity, gender integration and the redesign of service rules
1
Faculty of Security, Logistics and Management, Military University of Technology, Poland
Submission date: 2026-08-04
Acceptance date: 2026-08-07
Publication date: 2026-08-13
Corresponding author
Magdalena Kowalska
Faculty of Security, Logistics and Management, Military University of Technology, Poland
Faculty of Security, Logistics and Management, Military University of Technology, Poland
Przegląd Nauk o Obronności 2025;(22):124-139
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Objectives:
The article examines how emerging technologies - particularly cyber capabilities, artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics, autonomous systems and digitally mediated work - alter women's access to, performance in and experience of military service. It asks which service rules must change if technological modernisation is to strengthen operational effectiveness without reproducing gendered organisational inequalities.
Methods:
A structured qualitative review and document analysis were conducted. The evidence base combines peer-reviewed literature published mainly between 2016 and July 2026, NATO and national policy documents, cybersecurity and military-AI governance reports, and three Polish military-academic studies supplied for the analysis. Sources were coded against recruitment, training, occupational standards, deployment, career progression, work-life balance, data governance and protection from technology-enabled harm.
Results:
Technology widens the range of militarily decisive roles in which cognitive, analytical and socio-technical competence is more important than body-size proxies. Cybersecurity also turns every service member into a security actor. These opportunities are conditional: biased data, masculine professional stereotypes, unequal access to technical training, poorly fitted equipment, intrusive monitoring and online gender-based abuse can transfer older inequalities into digital systems. The article develops a gender-responsive cyber-service model based on task-related standards, skills-based career architecture, universal cyber competence, auditable AI, privacy-by-design, flexible but secure service arrangements, inclusive equipment and accountable command.
Conclusions:
New technology does not automatically equalise military service. Its positive effect depends on institutional design. Gender-responsive cybersecurity is therefore not a welfare supplement but a readiness requirement: it expands the talent pool, improves risk recognition and helps maintain trust in data-driven command.
The article examines how emerging technologies - particularly cyber capabilities, artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics, autonomous systems and digitally mediated work - alter women's access to, performance in and experience of military service. It asks which service rules must change if technological modernisation is to strengthen operational effectiveness without reproducing gendered organisational inequalities.
Methods:
A structured qualitative review and document analysis were conducted. The evidence base combines peer-reviewed literature published mainly between 2016 and July 2026, NATO and national policy documents, cybersecurity and military-AI governance reports, and three Polish military-academic studies supplied for the analysis. Sources were coded against recruitment, training, occupational standards, deployment, career progression, work-life balance, data governance and protection from technology-enabled harm.
Results:
Technology widens the range of militarily decisive roles in which cognitive, analytical and socio-technical competence is more important than body-size proxies. Cybersecurity also turns every service member into a security actor. These opportunities are conditional: biased data, masculine professional stereotypes, unequal access to technical training, poorly fitted equipment, intrusive monitoring and online gender-based abuse can transfer older inequalities into digital systems. The article develops a gender-responsive cyber-service model based on task-related standards, skills-based career architecture, universal cyber competence, auditable AI, privacy-by-design, flexible but secure service arrangements, inclusive equipment and accountable command.
Conclusions:
New technology does not automatically equalise military service. Its positive effect depends on institutional design. Gender-responsive cybersecurity is therefore not a welfare supplement but a readiness requirement: it expands the talent pool, improves risk recognition and helps maintain trust in data-driven command.
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