Women comprise about 20.9 per cent of full-time Australian defence force personnel and there is no expectation that gender parity will ever be reached. Head of Military Personnel Rear Admiral Tish Van Stralen says while there are important targets for increasing women’s representation, with a goal of at least 25 per cent women in the ADF by 2030, gender parity is not on the table. “I don’t think it’s achievable,” she adds.
The women’s participation rate differs across the Australian armed services, ranging from 15.2 per cent in the Army, to 24.4 per cent in the Navy and 27.3 per cent in the Airforce, Van Stralen says, and there is a push across all three arms to attract more women.
The ADF’s rate of women’s participation is better than it is in military forces in the United Kingdom (11.7 per cent), Canada (16.1 per cent), New Zealand (20.2 per cent), and the US (16 per cent), she adds, and the ADF is working to address deterrents such as sexual harassment and sexual assault.
Last year’s Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide made a number of recommendations to address the problem of sexual violence in the Australian military. The ADF is now “taking very strong actions to implement the recommendations,” Van Stralen says, including considering legislative changes and preventative actions. “It’s really about fostering that safe and respectful environment for women and for all personnel.”
There is a broad understanding in Australia’s military forces that women are often the primary caregivers in families with children or elderly members. Van Stralen says “considerable flexibility” is now on offer for women, including a range of full-time and part-time roles, and work-from-home options. Maternity leave provisions have increased over the years from 14 weeks to 18 weeks. “How we support our women to stay in the ADF is one of our critical focuses,” she adds. “We want to retain that diversity in our workforce. It is so important to our capability.”
All ADF roles are now open to women, including all combat and security roles which were became available for women in 2016. While there is a concentration of women in areas such as enterprise and command, support, health, intelligence, and logistics, Van Stralen says “combat and security roles are a focus for our women”.
She says that a “critical mass” of 25 per cent women has been reached in various areas in the ADF. This is a participation threshold and according to ADF policy, a critical mass enables the minority group to change group culture, form the alliances necessary to significantly affect the whole group, influence high-level decision-making and drive the chain reaction necessary for the majority to adopt the changes.
All three arms of the military have reached this 25 per cent critical mass of women in the fields of enterprise and command support, and health. The Navy and the Airforce have also attained a critical mass of women in the fields of logistics and intelligence. The Navy alone has reached critical mass in communications and cyber, and the Airforce alone in combat and security.
Van Stralen says nobody, and certainly no women, should feel they are not suited to a military career. “We take people from all backgrounds,” she says. “Part of our focus is really providing that education and training to our people. It doesn’t matter what gender they are, where they come from, it’s really about giving them those opportunities to gain skills, gain education and fulfil the duties and requirements for our defence capability.”
There are women clearance divers in the ADF, she adds, and women in submarines, in the infantry. “It’s really about having that diversity in the workplace too, that diverse thinking, and that really contributes to our capability as well.”
A marketing campaign is underway to attract recruits from everywhere in society to the ADF, Van Stralen says, including Australians from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and First Nations Australians, as well as women, and of course, men.
“There’s a lot of market research behind our campaigns,” she adds, “you will see women, men, people of different cultural backgrounds, to really ensure people can see that anybody can do these roles. If you are an eligible candidate, we can train you in any role you require.”
The ADF also has a team specifically for recruiting women.
“They coordinate targeted events for women across Australia,” Van Stralen says. “They really help to promote those career opportunities and increase that engagement with women. We are very much focused on trying to attract women of all ages, and we recruit effectively from 17 up to over 50.”
The ADF provides a career path for young Australians who may not choose to go on to tertiary education, she adds. In the ADF they can be educated and learn skills, and find a “sense of belonging,” Van Stralen says. “It’s about doing something that’s bigger than yourself.”