Gendered Organisations and the Construction of Militarised Masculinity in Gunjan Saxena’s The Kargil Girl (2020)

Abstract

Women’s entry into military institutions has often been portrayed through similar ideas of empowerment, national service, and individual achievement. Such narratives, however, can overlook the gendered structures within which women negotiate their occupational legitimacy and institutional authority. This paper examines Gunjan Saxena and Kiran Nirvan’s The Kargil Girl (2020) as a contemporary Indian military life narrative that constructs female military identity within a historically masculinised institutional space. Drawing primarily on Joan Acker’s theory of gendered organisations, the paper argues that The Kargil Girl challenges the notion of women’s empowerment as a linear or uncomplicated process. Instead, it reveals the ways in which gender, organisational authority, military discipline, and professional legitimacy remain closely connected.