Women in the Armed Forces

 by Mia Parry

The armed forces have made significant strides towards gender equality in recent years. Most notably, the Royal Air Force first accepted women into the flying branch in the late 1980s with Anne-Marie Houghton graduating as the first female navigator in 1991 with Jo Slater becoming the the first female operational pilot in 1994. 

However, the Ministry of Defence stated that it may take ‘decades’ to improve female presence among senior officers. A recent survey showed that only 5% of one star, 4% for two star and 3% of three star officers were female with no female four star officers. Although 2018 saw the lift of restrictions on women serving in front line infantry and special forces close combat roles, the armed forces remain a male dominated career. More than three quarters of serving female personnel complained of ill fitting uniform and body armour, placing them at greater risk of harm in combat. Furthermore, 62% of female service personnel and veterans experienced discrimination and nearly 40% of 993 military women said their experiences of the complaints system were ‘extremely poor’. 

Despite the seemingly growing female presence in our military, numbers have fallen from 17320 in 2012 to 16470 in 2021. Many argue that this is a result of the UK government cutting costs and modernising the military as well as having to meet the same high physical standards of strength and fitness as their male counterparts. Nationwide there remains a struggle to find sufficient recruits, with figures showing that numbers are 4,000 below target so this drop in female recruits is hardly surprising.