Surely there’s bigger worries
about all our sons coming through ... will they get jobs?” one woman wrote.
In reply, another woman said: “Are you that insecure that you can’t handle a woman doing a man job? Women need to work too. There are more and more men going into day care work and pharmacy assistant roles. Both industries that were predominantly female and you don’t see us crying about it.” WHILE the world teeters on the brink of a possible nuclear holocaust, deep in Canberra’s Defence bunkers there are more urgent matters to address.
Apparently army chief Lieutenant General Angus Campbell is concerned only 12.7 per cent of his ranks are filled by female soldiers.
He has insisted that number double to 25 per cent by 2023.
The way to do this, Campbell believes, is to place a moratorium on male recruitment and fill all vacancies with females.
For the immediate future, all roles, including cavalrymen, artillerymen and riflemen, will be offered to female candidates, providing they pass the appropriate physical and psychological testing all recruits face. It seems males need not apply because they will fail the Campbell- imposed gender test.
The RAN and RAAF have also placed gender restrictions on current recruiting.
Not to put too fine a point on it, that is simply discrimination.
Nor should anyone try to camouflage that process with smokescreen descriptions of reverse or positive discrimination. Discrimination of any kind is still discrimination, particularly if it rejects candidates on the basis of their sex.
War in our region has become increasingly likely as Islamic State- inspired terrorists infiltrate the Philippines and Kim Jong- un threatens to fire nuclear weapons at US military facilities in Guam.
Guam is just 3600km north of Townsville, or about fourand- a- half hours by air.
All three services need to recruit and train the best candidates available to ensure they are best- prepared to meet these threats.
A more immediate threat to army recruiters was issued by Campbell about the consequences if they continued to defy his gender edict.
When a recruiter told his team to ignore the directions to recruit women, Campbell was reported to have said: “I subsequently invited him to review his posting options.”
This is the very treatment of subordinates which Campbell and his predecessor David Morrison claimed they would not tolerate. Increasing the number of females in senior command positions might create a more compassionate, less threatening leadership.
What is good for the goose is good for the gander.