Without women, Australia’s defence force will struggle to recruit enough people

Australia faces crisis-level workforce shortfalls in security and defence. Recruiting more people to the defence force is now an urgent matter of national security.

So, comments – such as those recently made by a Liberal candidate that we “need to remove females from combat corps” in order to “fix” the military – come at the worst possible time.

Such beliefs are not just unhelpful. They are dangerous.

Without women in the national security workforce, and in combat roles, Australia will fail to hit its recruitment targets – at a time of critical international insecurity.

Why is it so hard to attract women to the defence force?

We know women are interested and engaged in international affairs.

So, why don’t they want to join the defence force? In short, we don’t know – but we desperately need to find out.

Women make up just 20.7% of the Australian Defence Force (ADF).

Compared with a decade ago, this is an improvement. But the improvement has stalled. The latest figure represents a mere 0.1% increase compared with 2021 figures.

This is serious.

Australia’s recruitment problems put at risk our ability to:

• conduct maritime patrols
• defend against cyber attacks
• maintain force readiness.

Other democratic states worldwide are also struggling to achieve recruitment targets.

Despite ambitious multi-year government programs aimed a boosting women’s participation in national security, and thousands of pages of reports and reviews on the issue, results have been limited and inconsistent.

Most attempts to attract more women are focused on workplace improvements.

Efforts include:

Of the many government reviews and audits analysing the question, the vast majority focused on such workplace solutions.

But what if the problem doesn’t lie in the workplace, but rather in wider society?

What if one factor dissuading women was the archaic idea women just don’t really belong in the military at all?

Societal attitudes matter

The Liberal candidate who made the recent comments about women in combat roles has now been replaced. It’s positive to see his party saying such views are “inconsistent with the party’s position.”

However, the incident suggests doubt remains in some quarters about women’s readiness to serve and take up combat roles.

There’s a dearth of research on why exactly Australian women appear reluctant to join the ADF. Some of the reasons may be linked to the perception the ADF has a problem with sexual assault or sexism.

But broader social gender norms matter too. When women hear comments reinforcing the idea national security is primarily a male field, they may simply not see a future for themselves or their daughters in it.

A recent US study found 60% of teenage girls “have never considered joining the military or pictured themselves in uniform”.

A passing glance at American politics demonstrates the often precarious position of women already working in national security. There, in recent months, debate has turned to:

Trump’s America is not Australia, of course. But the recent backlash against women in the US security and defence arenas shows how quickly previous progress can be unwound.

Could these debates be having a chilling effect on women in Australia who might otherwise consider a career in the military?

More research is required to answer that question. But it’s possible public denigration of women in these roles deters women from seeking them at all, and may reinforce attitudes of those seeking to keep women out.

Broadening the talent pool

Australia’s own response to supporting diversity in the military has been mixed. In 2013, Chief of Army David Morrison made international headlines for a powerful speech about diversity.

But Morrison faced criticism in the aftermath. Petitions called for his resignation and condemnation after he spoke about gender equality (and not veterans’ welfare) at an awards ceremony. He was criticised for caling for non-gendered language in Defence workplaces.

Women make vital contributions to critical and creative thinking and decision-making in national security.

Women in the military can do jobs men cannot do. Think, for example, of women who served in Afghanistan or Iraq, where it would be culturally unacceptable for a male soldier to talk to and work with local women. These were roles female soldiers were able to take up.

Including women in defence increases the available talent pool, addressing pressing issues of workforce capability in the ADF.

Australia’s national security requires women to be part of our military, including in combat roles. Without them, recruitment targets will fail. It is not diversity, equality and inclusion: it is reality.

It is critically important to Australia’s national security we resist the trend from the United States. We must find out what’s stopping women from joining our defence force and address those problems urgently.