Australian military lets women into frontline roles

Women who can meet requirements will be allowed into positions such as infantry and clearance diving Australia has announced it will remove all gender barriers in its military over the next five years, opening up positions that had previously been considered too dangerous for women. The defence minister, Stephen Smith, said Australia would follow Canada and New Zealand in allowing women who meet physical and psychological criteria to perform any role. The reform will be phased in. Women can currently serve in 93% of employment categories in the Australian Defence Force, which includes the army, navy and air force. But some roles have been reserved for men, including infantry, artillery and naval clearance diving. “This is a significant and major cultural change,” Smith said. “That is why we’d rather err on the side of caution in expressing a five-year period.” The cabinet agreed to the change on Monday with the support of defence chiefs, Smith said. The Australian Defence Association, an influential security thinktank, had previously warned it could lead to heavy casualties. The association argued that biomechanical differences between the sexes differences in muscle distribution, centres of gravity and rate of recovery from physical exertion made even physically strong women more vulnerable than men in combat. Smith said the change would not affect the Australian military’s interoperability and personnel exchanges with its foremost ally, the US. “We will present our soldiers as potential embeds or potential third-party or third-country deployees on the basis of their capacity and their ability, not on the basis of their sex,” he said. Australia Gender guardian.co.uk

Posted by on September 27, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.