Armed Forces: Females

(asked on 15th January 2018) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that more women are prepared for and encouraged to takeup positions in senior command.


Answered by
Tobias Ellwood Portrait
Tobias Ellwood
This question was answered on 23rd January 2018

The Ministry of Defence is working to achieve a more diverse workforce at all levels, including through increased female representation. This work includes better understanding and greater engagement with the female community, targeting recruitment campaigns and nurturing candidates as necessary.

Officers in the UK Armed Forces receive command training at every level, ensuring that all commanders are prepared for their roles, regardless of gender.

We encourage all our people to reach their full potential, facilitated by mentoring which is available to all and improvements to the return to work strategy and policies post-maternity. The Department is also developing a Flexible Engagement System (FES) for Service personnel who wish to vary their deployability or to work part-time to better fit their Service career around family life. FES will enable Regular Service personnel to temporarily change the nature of their service, enabling flexible working or protection from deployment to support an individual’s personal circumstances where operational demands allow. The opportunity to request flexible working arrangements will apply to all Service personnel and will be introduced from spring 2019. The primary legislation to enable FES is currently before Parliament.

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