Women recruits do better but Army is still a man’s world
More men drop out than women, but 93% of entrants are male
A HIGHER proportion of female recruits than males make it past the training stage for joining the Defence Forces.
Overall, around three in ten people who sign up for the Irish military never make it past training and are discharged.
Figures provided by the Defence Forces confirm 30% of men who enlist either fail to get through training or drop out first.
The rate of discharge among female recruits was slightly lower than for men, at just over 24%, according to details released under Freedom of Information (FOI).
However, the figures also show that the overwhelming majority recruits are male.
According to figures covering the past three years, 93% of those who enlisted were men and fewer than 7% were women.
In recent months the Defence Forces have been rocked by controversies over sexual abuse, harassment, and discrimination against female personnel.
Data covering general recruitment to the Army, Air Corps, and Naval Service reveals the military faces an uphill battle in trying to recruit more women.
In 2019, there were just 28 female general service recruits, with eight women discharged during training that year.
In 2020, there was a small uptick in the figures, with 32 women signing up. But 11 women were reported as having been discharged in training the same year.
Last year just 31 females enlisted as general service recruits, while 12 women were listed as discharged.
Combined figures for all three years reveal that around one in three women were discharged at the training stage, with 91 having enlisted and 31 dropping out during that time.
However, the Defence Forces say the data included some discharges of people recruited between 2015 and 2018, so the average rate from 2019 to 2021 worked out at around 24%.
Of the 1,241 men who signed up as general service recruits in the past three years, 477 were
listed as having been discharged during training.
However, the Defence Forces say this figure also included some historical discharges, so the true dropout rate for 2019 to 2021 was around 30%.
Figures also reveal how recruitment was hit in 2020 – the first year of the pandemic – with a steep fall
in the numbers signing up. In 2019, 503 general service recruits enlisted but that fell to just 385 the following year, according to the data. Recruitment recovered somewhat last year with 444 new would-be soldiers signing up.
There are other pathways into the Defence Forces including direct entry for certain specialities,
re-enlistment of former members, and recommissioning of retired officers.
The Defence Forces say general service recruitment is a six-stage process beginning with an online application for eligibility and a web-based psychometric test.
The next step is a fitness test measuring strength and aerobic endurance, with slightly different standards for male and female recruits.
Men are expected to be able to do 20 push-ups and 20 sit-ups in a minute, and run one-and-a-half miles within 11 minutes and 40 seconds.
The same criteria apply for female recruits but with modified push-ups, and a longer target time for the run of 13 minutes and 10 seconds.
An interview is conducted on the same day as the fitness test before recruits move on to a medical, and the final stage of security clearance.
A Defence Forces spokesman said: ‘Applicants must pass the previous phase to progress to the next. Once all eligibility and assessment criteria are passed, an applicant is then listed for recruitment into Óglaigh na hÉireann.’
Security analyst Declan Power said a certain number of discharges is always to be expected in the recruitment process as not all applicants will fit the bill for military service.
Mr Power said: ‘Recruit training is always a tough and indeed transformative experience for many, male or female, but the figures do seem to indicate that female candidates seem to be more motivated and prepared for what is ahead of them.
‘This seems to tell us that while the quantity of females enlisting is not high, the quality certainly is, and that the Defence Forces’ message is accessing what will always be a small cohort of women who are eminently suitable for a military career.’
‘The quantity is not high but the quality is’