Right: How cartoonist Nicholson, of The Australian, sees the aspirations of female soldiers in the Australian defence forces.
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Background information
Women in combat roles around the world
From the beginning of the 1970s, most Western armies began to admit women to serve active duty. Only some of them permit women to fill active combat roles, and even here there is significant variation as to how these roles are defined. These countries include Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Germany, Norway, Israel, Serbia, Sweden and Switzerland.
Other nations allow female soldiers to serve in certain Combat Arms positions, such as India, the United Kingdom and the United States, which allows women to serve in Artillery roles, while still excluding them from units with a dedicated Infantry role.
The United States allows women in most combat flying positions. Turkey uses female officers in combat flying (bombardment) missions over Northern Iraq and in ISAF patrol missions in Kabul, Afghanistan. Pakistan employs women in Air Force and has used female fighter pilots in search, monitoring and bombardment operations in her war against militancy. Pakistani female fighter pilots have also participated in international exercises and are currently deployed on supersonic F-7 fighter jets.
Women in the Australian Defence Forces
Women first served in the Australian military during World War II when each service established a separate female branch. The RAAF was the first service to fully integrate women into operational units, doing so in 1977, with the Army and RAN following in 1979 and 1985 respectively. The ADF initially struggled to integrate women, with integration being driven by changing Australian social values and Government legislation rather than a change in attitudes within the male-dominated military.
The number of positions available to women in the ADF has increased over time. Although servicewomen were initially barred from combat positions, these restrictions began to be lifted in 1990. In 2010 approximately 92% of employment categories and 84% of positions in the ADF were available to females as well as males. The only positions which women are currently excluded from are those in which there is a high probability of 'direct combat', which includes all infantry positions and other positions in which there is a high probability of hand to hand combat. As a result, while almost all positions in the Navy and Air Force are open to women, women are excluded from a high proportion of Army positions. (It is these restrictions that the recent change in regulations will affect.)
Despite the expansion in the number of positions available to women and other changes which aim to encourage increased female recruitment and retention, there has been little growth in the proportion of female permanent defence personnel. In the 1989-1990 financial year women made up 11.4% of the ADF personnel. In the 2008-2009 financial year women occupied 13.5% of ADF positions. During the same period the proportion of civilian positions filled by women in the Australian Defence Organisation increased from 30.8% to 42.8%.
In 2008, defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon instructed the ADF to place a greater emphasis on recruiting women and addressing barriers to women being promoted to senior roles.
In September 2011 Minister for Defence Stephen Smith announced that the Cabinet had decided to remove all restrictions on women serving in combat positions, and that this change would come into effect within five years. This decision was supported by the CDF and the chiefs of the services.