International Women’s Day

Baroness Carberry of Muswell Hill Excerpts

Friday 6th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Carberry of Muswell Hill (Lab)]

My Lords, my warm congratulations go to all my noble friends who have made such brilliant maiden speeches today. We are very lucky to have them all with us.

I want to use my few minutes today to thank the women who serve in our Armed Forces. This week, the Prime Minister rightly paid tribute to the bravery of our servicemen and servicewomen who put themselves in harm’s way to keep others safe. Today, as we sit safely in this lovely Chamber, hundreds of servicewomen are on active deployment in the Middle East, and we should not forget what we owe them.

Women in the forces serve in front-line combat roles. This country lifted historic restrictions years ago, and, since 2019, all roles, including ground close combat, have been formally open to women. There are brilliant women doing challenging jobs, across all ranks and roles, in the Army, Navy and Air Force. Our nation needs these women. Our Armed Forces are under strength. The commitment of these women is vital to our safety and security, and we need more of them.

There are very big challenges. In 2021, the Government announced that women should account for 30% of all new recruits into the Armed Forces by 2030. We are nowhere near that. As of October last year, women were approximately only 12% of the UK regular forces and just under 16% of the reserves. More women have joined up over the decades, but women’s presence is still relatively limited and uneven. By any meaningful measure, women are underrepresented in the forces and in the most senior military leadership roles.

If you talk to young women choosing their future careers, as I do, many will tell you that they are not going to consider the armed services. They know they would get access to cutting-edge skills and exciting careers but they are put off by reports of service culture. The MoD and the services have done a lot to deal with bullying, harassment and discrimination, but no one who read last year’s survey into sexualised behaviours and sexual harassment in the Armed Forces is going to be encouraged to sign up. Around two-thirds of women reported coming up against at least one form of sexualised behaviour in the past 12 months; nearly one in 10 women reported non-consensual sexual activity; and over one-third reported being groped or touched. Nor is there anything encouraging about broken locks in female accommodation, ill-fitting uniforms, inappropriate kit, poorly co-ordinated victim support and lack of confidence in current complaint services.

There are also more subtle pressures. I spoke to a young woman officer this week. She is in her mid-career, in a front-line combat role. She loved her job, but she said she had to tough it out every day against a general male attitude that made it clear that women should not be doing these challenging jobs. She was too polite to describe this as a heavily sexist and toxic masculine culture, but that is what it is. We are dealing with endemic harassment, inadequate institutional responses and cultural resistance, so it is no wonder that we are missing recruitment targets and losing talented women mid-career.

The MoD and the services are, to be fair, getting a grip on all this, but there is still such a long way to go. I applaud initiatives such as the improved complaint system, new education and prevention initiatives, and specialist teams that are rolling out consent and misogyny training across key training bases. There is also a violence against women and girls taskforce, a victim and witness care unit, and zero tolerance. However, it all needs to add up to profound cultural transformation, robust mechanisms to prevent and address harassment, and effective support structures for victims.

Above all, we need sustained strategies for recruiting and retaining women across all ranks and specialties. Without this, we are wasting talent, failing women and failing our nation. I end by saluting all the women currently serving in the Armed Forces and again thank them for their service to our country.