Australian Defence Force gears up to accept women in all combat roles

10/22/2012 Samantha Tanner - defenceiq.com

The Australian Defence Force has announced its five year plan to open up its most dangerous military jobs to women.

Acting on the precedent of New Zealand, and more recently India who will be allowing women to pilot fighter jets in theatre from this month onwards, the Australian government is preparing to allow women to undertake previously blocked frontline positions such as infantry, artillery and mine clearance divers.

While this signals a positive move towards more equality in Australia’s armed forces, privately some defence chiefs remain concerned about the decision to let women into the 7% of armed forces roles that had previously been closed to them. In fact, in confidential briefings obtained by Australia’s Sunday Telegraph, fears such as increased sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour, the perception that the Army is lowering its standards and positive discrimination were all listed as concerns of either ‘extreme’ or ‘high’ importance.

Further concerns from the Defence Department included: resentment towards women for receiving attention, increase in injury due to new physical employment standards requirements, female expectation they need to out-perform male peers to get acceptance and exposure to low to non-existent levels of personal privacy and severe field conditions.

In all, there were reported to be 71 concerns.

Women who are already enlisted within the Australian Armed Forces will be able to apply for these combat roles from January 2013. However, those who are currently not enlisted will have to wait until 2015 at the earliest in order for government policy to be cleared and put in place.