Female Canadian soldiers to train 1st all-female platoon in Jordanian army

By: Amanda Connolly, Global News 

Women from the Canadian military are heading to Jordan within the next six months to help train a new team of all-female soldiers in the Jordanian army.

The Jordanian Armed Forces Quick Reaction Force Female Engagement Team is a new platoon made up entirely of female soldiers trained for rapid response in situations where male soldiers cannot realistically engage with women encountered by the armed forces.

That could include conducting physical searches of a refugee woman at a border crossing or responding to incidents at refugee camps, according to a post published last month on the Maple Leaf,a website run by the Canadian Armed Forces that publishes material on the work of the military.

A spokesperson for the military confirmed that a team will deploy within the coming months but did not provide details, citing security concerns.

“A small team of Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members (all female) will be deployed to Jordan later this year to provide training support to the Jordanian Armed Forces (JAF) Quick Reaction Force Female Engagement Team,” wrote Cpt. Christopher Daniel, public affairs officer with the Canadian Joint Operations Command.

“Their identity, exact numbers, and exact location will not be disclosed at this time due to operational security considerations. Also, they will not conduct media engagements at this time.

Female engagement teams were first used by the American military during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

They started out largely as an ad-hoc effort, using women already deployed on existing operations to speak and work with local women.

READ MORE: Canadian Armed Forces pushes for more women: ‘I’m a woman in the military and I love it’

Strict cultural norms prevented male soldiers from talking to local women and as a result, opportunities were missed to both provide and gain information.

The first full-time American female engagement team arrived in Afghanistan in March 2010.

They were quickly followed by a British team in October 2010.

According to a 2011 NATO presentation on the teams, their duties ranged from providing information on enemy activity back to their units, communicating messages meant to educate and influence the public through the women in local communities, conducting security searches of women and conducting medical outreach.

Daniel did not say what kinds of training the Canadian female soldiers will provide.

He did, however, note the training will focus on how the Jordanian female soldiers can take the lead in situations where men might not be able.

“The specific types of training are not ready to be discussed yet as they are still in the planning stages,” he said.


“The training will be geared towards enabling the JAF Quick Reaction Force Female Engagement Team to respond in a culturally sensitive and respectful manner to security tasks, enhancing operational effectiveness.”

Jordan, as a country that is relatively stable and among the most progressive in the Middle East, has been a key recipient of Canadian humanitarian and security support in recent years, particularly since the rise of the so-called Islamic State terror group.

A Jordanian pilot was murdered by ISIS in 2015 and in 2016, the Canadian government announced Jordan would be among the core recipients of an anti-ISIS training and support package worth almost $2 billion.

The power vacuum caused by the Syrian civil war provided fertile ground for ISIS to metastasize as the country fell to pieces.

Roughly 1.4 million Syrian refugees fleeing the violence of both the civil war and the fight against ISIS have arrived in Jordan, which operates camps to house the refugees as they await resettlement through the United Nations Refugee Agency.

The camps have been cited as a major source of concern because of the potential they hold for radicalization, human trafficking and sexual assault of those living in them.

The deployment later this year will not be the first time Canadian soldiers will be training Jordanian counterparts.

Since roughly the end of 2016, a Canadian training team has been working with the Jordanian military to help with things like soldier skills, building infrastructure in areas of concern like the border with Syria, and providing equipment like wet weather gear and searchlights.

Another team is also working with soldiers in Lebanon.

It is not clear, however, how long the deployment of the female training unit might last.

The current mandate for Operation Impact, which is Canada’s mission against ISIS through which the training and support are conducted, expires in March 2019.

Bercuson: The challenge of Recruiting Women to the Canadian Armed Forces

By: David Bercuson, iPolitics 

One of the innovative programs that grows out of the Strong, Secure and Engaged defence policy statement released a year ago is the Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) project launched by the Department of National Defence in April this year. The project promises $1.3 billion over ten years to be distributed to scholars, businesses and researchers generally who undertake competitive endeavors to help the government solve 16 defence and security challenges in many domains. The majority of the proposals the government is seeking help with are highly technical challenges but one – to achieve 25 per cent female participation in the Canadian forces within ten years – is most decidedly not.

In this undated photo provided by Canadian Armed Forces Capt. Ashley Collette, poses for a photo with children during a patrol in Afghanistan. During her 10-month deployment, Collette led a 50-strong all-male infantry unit providing security to villagers. The Department of National Defence has set the goal of 25 per cent of the Canadian forces being women in the next 10 years. (AP Photo/Capt. Ashley Collette)

Since 2000, women are eligible to serve in any branch of the Canadian Armed Forces in any capacity. Today about 15 per cent of Canada’s soldiers, sailors and air personnel are women. That number has been relatively static for some time. The government wants to see more women in the CAF for very good reasons, namely that female perspectives in the entire range of armed forces activities and defence-related matters is crucial and that any nation, company or military force that either excludes or does not encourage full participation of one half of humanity in its endeavours will be outpaced by those that do.

"But ‘manliness’ today is a concept much in dispute, as evolving gender roles have opened up large areas of society to female participation. Remember when the doctor was a kindly older man? Today there are more women than men in medical schools."

So what is the problem? The CAF offers a good career for young men and women who crave adventure in their lives, are physically and mentally fit, and who want to step out of the confines of an office or a factory assembly line. Benefits are generous, pay is at least equal to that in the private sector and Canadians today pay a great deal of honour and respect to those who serve.

There is really no secret to increasing the number of women in the Canadian armed forces and it begins with security of the person. From time immemorial, soldiering was seen as a male endeavor. In historian Geoffrey Hayes latest book Crerar’s Lieutenants: Inventing the Canadian Junior Army Officer, 1939-45, much emphasis is placed on that quality called “manliness” that dominated thinking about what would make a good junior officer in the Second World War. The concept itself is not new and other historians have written about “manliness” as an essential quality going back to the days of the Canadian militia. But “manliness” today is a concept much in dispute, as evolving gender roles have opened up large areas of society to female participation. Remember when the doctor was a kindly older man? Today there are more women than men in medical schools.

If women do not feel secure, at ease and totally comfortable as themselves, in uniform, why would they think of a career in the military forces? It’s hard to say if sexual harassment is any more prevalent in the military than in industry, broadcasting, entertainment or education, but those fields have become as traditional for women as they once were for men. And within those areas of employment, women are increasingly vocal in their fight to be treated as human beings. In the military, with its hierarchical chain of command, fighting city hall is much harder.

The other task, no less important, is to fight that still prevalent belief among males that women may be good civil-military relations folks, but poor trigger pullers, by ensuring from the word go — in training at all levels — that the female person standing beside you is just as qualified in her field of military occupation as you are and will have your back, as necessary.

Easy to say, but the challenges, even in the early 21st century, are immense.
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David Bercuson is Director of Programs at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute and Director of the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary.

The views, opinions and positions expressed by all iPolitics columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of iPolitics.

Canadian Special Forces Looking to Recruit more Women

By: Murray Brewster, CBC News 

Canada's special forces hope to recruit more than just a few good women in the coming years, says the commander of the elite force.

Maj-Gen. Mike Rouleau said the special forces, the highly trained military units that hunt terrorists and conduct covert operations, are considering how they can recruit more women.

More than just a nod toward society's growing demand for gender balance, having more women in the unit would make it more effective, he said.
'This is the future, and it is a bit of James Bond, but if you want to defeat a [terrorist] cellular-based network, you need to be in front of that cell'- Steve Day, former commander of counterterrorism unit

"Having female operators would allow us to be more flexible in the battlespace," Rouleau said in a recent interview. "It would allow us to be more under the radar in certain cases."

In certain countries, two men walking down the street might draw attention, but having a man and woman conduct the same mission might be less noticeable, Rouleau suggested.

A former commander of the country's elite counterterrorism unit, JTF-2, which is part of the special forces command, said the need for such mixed gender teams is something Canada's allies have already recognized.

The more special forces are called on to fight terrorists, the more they will have to act and fight like intelligence agents, rather "door-kicking" commandos, said retired colonel Steve Day, who is now president of Reticle Security.

"Our closest allies routinely deploy male and female alongside each other to do the softer, intelligence-gathering, sensor-type operations," he said.

"This is the future, and it is a bit of James Bond, but if you want to defeat a [terrorist] cellular-based network, you need to be in front of that cell, and at the moment, we're not there."
Clear criteria

Up to 14 per cent of the more than 2,200 Canadian special forces personnel are women, a percentage Rouleau said he wants to increase to 25 per cent.

That figure would be in line with the overall direction of the Canadian military, which has set the same goal.

"We're an equal opportunity employer," said Rouleau. "We'd love to have more women in the force."

It is, however, easier said than done.

Rouleau noted a handful of women currently serve in both the special forces command and the unit that responds to chemical, biological and radioactive incidents.

A few have even tried out for JTF-2, but none have gone on to take the training course, because they failed to qualify, he said.

In order to be successful, Day said, a cultural change is needed within the special forces that recognizes not only the value of women in the field, but the fact that the elite troops are capable of doing more than assaulting a target.

The very first introduction of women into the special forces ranks in 2003-2004 "didn't go over that well because organizationally we were quite immature when it came to understanding what the selection process would be," said Day.

"There was a lot of pushback and no end of short-term grief."

The problem is not simply gender bias, he added.

The selection process of an "assaulter" — a soldier well-suited to combat — is well documented, he said, but the criteria for choosing the best people for more intelligence-based operations is not as well defined. That needs to change, Day said.

Rouleau acknowledged his organization can do more to get out the message that "female operators are not only welcome, but in many cases, they would make us operationally more successful."
Army under strain

The Liberal government's defence policy, released last spring, mandated the expansion of special forces by up to 605 personnel, presenting all sorts of challenges beyond the gender issue.

At the moment, troops can only join the elite unit through the regular forces, and up to 94 per cent of those transfers come from the army.

The wider military is having its own problems.

The army currently sits at 47,000, which includes regular and reserve soldiers, as well as Canadian Rangers, who patrol the Arctic. But the regular force is short up to 1,500 troops from its allotted strength of 23,100, according to Department of Defence statistics.

Members of Canadian Forces Special Operations JTF-2 unit storm a ship during a training mission off the shores of Churchill, Man. in 2012. The nature of operations for special forces is changing to include more intelligence gathering. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

Senior defence officials insist they're hitting recruiting targets, but retention of highly skilled members is a problem.

Drawing from an army that is struggling to keep qualified soldiers "is a concern," said Rouleau, who acknowledged he and his staff are looking for a direct-entry model similar to a program introduced by the U.S. Army, known as 18-Xray.

"You can't come from the street to be a special forces operator," said Rouleau. "But that doesn't mean in the future we won't have a model that you can come from the street.

"I'm not saying that's where we're going. I'm saying we're looking at alternate options to today's model to make sure that we're both capturing the talent that's out there, but also try, if we can, to alleviate some of the pressure from the services."

The American system gives recruits the opportunity to "try out" for special forces right away.

U.S.officials say it does not guarantee a recruit will be accepted, only that they will be given the opportunity to demonstrate they have "the right stuff."

The Battle to get More Women into the Military

This article was originally published on The Conversation, an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. Disclosure information is available on the original site.
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The Trudeau government released a new defence policy in early June, after months of speculation about the size of the defence budget, purchase of major equipment and Canada’s future role in military operations.

The election of Donald Trump in the U.S. no doubt threw the process off course and forced certain revisions to the policy, which was initially due in January. The policy offers guidelines on the types of operations the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) might undertake and promises a steady increase in funding over the next decade. But its main focus is on people — the women and men who dedicate their life to military service.


Highlighting the importance of diversity, the policy pays special attention to female service members and aims “to further increase the representation of women in the military by one per cent annually towards a goal of 25 per cent in 10 years.” Driving this shift is the assumption the CAF is in need of culture change — and that more women and the use of gender perspectives will improve the effectiveness of the armed forces.

Reflecting the community it serves

Why are women now seen as critical to the military enterprise?

First, greater diversity in the CAF is key to maintaining a healthy connection between the military and the rest of society. The CAF Diversity Strategy recognizes this and envisions an armed force representative of the community it serves to ensure public legitimacy and keep support for the military strong.

How can the CAF attract more women? There are formal commitments to recognize the importance of retaining diverse personnel, but informal barriers remain. The CAF already has some of the longest parental-leave policies in the world. But single parents and women still face professional setbacks.

The CAF must quickly recognize and address the pressures of military careers on families, which includes frequent moves and prolonged absences from loved ones during deployments. Counting parental leave toward promotion will also be necessary for the professional advancement of women, who disproportionately take on the role of primary caregiver.

Women are also less likely than men to consider a military career in the first place.

To address these well-known challenges, the CAF’s new recruitment strategy will aim to showcase the wide variety of occupations it offers, in an attempt to make the military more attractive to women. The Women in Force Program will also allow for a “try it before you buy it” program for women interested in joining but not ready to commit.

Seeking buy-in among the ranks

Second, a more diverse CAF is good for the entire organization, men included. Although adding more women will not result in immediate and transformative changes in the way the CAF does business, research has shown that diverse teams work better.

Military leaders will have to constantly promote these initiatives, but will also have to assuage fears about the maintenance of physical and performance standards. All members of the armed forces must trust that standards will be enforced fairly if the diversity strategy is to have buy-in at all levels.

This kind of broad-based buy-in has proven elusive in the past. Even if no formal professional barriers remain, there is still organizational resistance to women’s presence in non-traditional roles, such as combat. And women are still disproportionately affected by sexual misconduct, as a recent survey showed. Discriminatory and sexist attitudes, thus, persist.

‘Hop on Her’ controversy

These common narratives can be tempered with dedicated leadership. In the military context, these challenges need a commitment to addressing hard-to-answer questions.

For example, the Chief of the Defence Staff issued Operation Honour, an order meant to eradicate harmful and inappropriate sexual behaviour in the CAF’s ranks. This was a leadership decision that addressed a difficult and pervasive challenge for the military. But some members of the armed forces started undermining the initiative by calling it “Hop on Her.”.

This is where leaders in the military — who are mostly men — must be included in the discussion of promoting gender perspectives and women’s participation in the armed forces. For these reasons, the burden of change cannot rest on women’s shoulders, but must be spread evenly across the entire organization.

Education and training are key. Including feminist texts in the military curriculum or challenging the warrior ethos might lead to greater gender awareness amongst the upper cadre of military leaders, but most operators will only pay attention if they see how gender matters on the battlefield.

To this end, highlighting the link between gender (as opposed to women) and operational effectiveness is necessary. When soldiers are on the ground, accounting for the roles played by women and men — and their unique needs and power differences — is critical to operational planning and securing lasting outcomes. Understanding how gender intersects with social and cultural factors leads to greater situational awareness. Gender roles in Afghanistan and in Iraq, for example, had clear operational implications.

Promoting the operational and social benefits of women in the CAF is just the first step toward increasing their numbers in the military. To move beyond commitments and toward organizational change and buy-in, the CAF must go beyond women’s representation in the ranks and become aware of how gender relations are constructed, at home and on the battlefield.

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Authors: Stefanie von Hlatky, Assistant Professor of Political Studies and Director of the Centre for International and Defence Policy, Queen’s University, Ontario and Meaghan Shoemaker, PhD Student, International Relations and Gender and Politics, Queen’s University, Ontario

CAF Women in Force Program Quickly Fills Up

By: Marc Montgonmery, CBCNews 

Women in Force Program

The Canadian Forces are eager to increase the number of women in the military.

There is a perception that women generally are intimidated by the idea of a military career so a new pilot project seeks to give them short information and “hands on” experiences with the military. The idea is to help dispel myths, get a sense of the realities and the many opportunities, and possibly inspire them to join.

LCol Raby is Deputy Commander, Canadian Forces Recruiting Group, and Canadian Armed Forces’ Head of the Women Recruiting Tiger Team.

The new pilot programme is called “Women in Force”.

It’s a reaction to a survey showing women really don’t know much about opportunities in the military, and what they do know often consists of myths and inaccuracies.

LCol Raby points out that one of the first myths about women in the Canadian Forces is that women’s roles are limited.

She says every career position of the one hundred or so available, is open to women including such things as front line infantry, or fighter pilot.

Participants in the 10-day Women in Force programme will get to experience a bit of hands on training with weapons and equipment. © Corporal Neil Clarkson, 14 AMS Wing Imaging GD2015-0285-003

She also points out that the military would like to encourage women in any role from engineers, to lawyers, pilots to doctors, dentists, nurses, from mechanics to firefighters, you name it, all are open to women and in the army, the air force, and the navy.

The newly conceived pilot programme involves two options for those women interested. The first option is a three-day session which takes place at Base Borden in Ontario for English speakers, and St Jean sur Richelieu in Quebec for Francophones.

A variety of opportunities and training in the medical field are available in the CF. Here, Master Corporal Natasha Lauzon of 1 Canadian Field Hospital in Petawawa, Ontario, and Sergeant Valerie Charbonneau, a medic with 55 Field Ambulance in Quebec City, Quebec, tend to the foot of a Canadian Armed Forces Nijmegen marching team member, during the Nijmegen Marches in the Netherlands, on July 23, 2015. © WO Jerry Kean, 5 Cdn Div Public Affairs

These sessions involve a lot of talking and meeting with those already involved in various trades with the military. They will learn about the realities and requirements of military life, and about the benefits and opportunities of which there are many.

Captain Meghan McCready (left), Aerospace Controller with 12 Radar Squadron, watches the control radar screen while Master Corporal Patrick Flynn (right), Air Control Operator with 12 Radar Squadron, relays the information during Exercise AMALGAM DART 15-2 in Resolute Bay, Nunavut on May 31, 2015. © Corporal Patrick Drouin, 4 Wing Imaging

A more involved ten-day visit is available in August which offers a more “hands-on” approach getting to experience various pieces of equipment including weapons. Another myth that most women have is that the physical fitness requirements would eliminate them. The ten-day experience allows them to experience physical fitness training and attempt the physical test for themselves.

The experience also gives a chance for one-on-one connection with women and men now in a variety of trades to learn about them first hand.

LCol Raby also points out that an officer training programme still exists in Canada whereby candidates have their university education paid for, and then sign up (and still get paid!) to serve in their degreed trade for a period of at least five years. Experience has shown that a high percentage choose to continue with the Canadian Forces after that time.

However, this pilot programme is to give a basic familiarization to any adult woman with Canadian citizenship with a minimum of grade 10.

She says once this initial pilot programme ends, the military will discuss the impressions of those involved and adjust future programmes to even better serve women who may be interested in the many trades, skills, and exciting opportunities the military has to offer.

LCol Raby says they are quite pleased with this initial pilot programme as all the 120 spots have been quickly filled with a waiting list.

CAF to Review Uniforms, Badges, and More for Greater Diversity

By: David Pugliese, The National Post

The Canadian military will review its badges, uniforms, flags and associated ceremonial activities to ensure they are welcoming to women, visible minorities, the disabled, indigenous people and members of the gay and transgender communities.

The move is part of the Canadian Armed Forces Diversity Strategy approved last May by Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jon Vance.

It is now up to the Canadian Forces to figure out how to move ahead with Vance’s strategy, and in January of this year the military produced a diversity strategy action plan, which was forwarded to the Ottawa Citizen by sources inside National Defence headquarters.

The action plan focuses on Designated Group Members, which the Canadian Forces defines as women, Indigenous people, persons with disabilities and members of visible minorities. Also included in the strategy is the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Transsexual, Queer, Questioning and 2-Spirited) community. The plan includes a detailed list of initiatives the Forces can take to accommodate those members, among them:

• “Review current dress, badges, flags, music, lineages, affiliations, drill and ceremonial, etc. and ensure these customs complement and expand towards a more diverse and inclusive national military institution (Allow dress appropriate to one’s gender identity.)”

• “Consider family circumstances when posting CAF members, including if possible, geographic proximity to family for cultural reasons, when requested.”

• “Dedicate a room at the workplace where CAF members feel encouraged and not at risk to practice their religion.”

• “Develop policy and guidelines to address the spiritual needs of Indigenous CAF Members.”

Other initiatives to be considered involve examining military equipment and infrastructure to “accommodate the needs of Designated Group Members and other members with specific needs,” and ways to improve healthcare and family support for the various individuals, which would include “traditional healing, spiritual needs, specific accommodations – dietary needs.”

Messages about employment equity and diversity will also be included in all Canadian Forces advertising and displays, according to the action plan, and military leaders will have to undergo diversity training to be considered for promotion.

Department of National Defence spokeswoman Suzanne Parker said Vance approved the action plan earlier this year. The approach is intended to be as comprehensive as possible, she said, accounting for the many differences that exist among Canadian military personnel beyond the four designated groups.

“Many of the initiatives, programs and other activities identified in this Action Plan are already in place, are ongoing or will soon be implemented,” Parker said in an email. “The Diversity Strategy’s Action Plan is expected to be fully implemented by the end of 2018.”

The military hopes the diversity strategy will help with recruitment.

It’s unclear at this point how equipment, uniforms, flags and ceremonial activities might be changed to be more accommodating.

In February, Vance was questioned at a defence conference in Ottawa about body armour and other gear not being properly fitted for women. The general agreed, and said that if the Canadian Forces wants to “become more diverse and inclusive, we’re going to have to change.”

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The Canadian military has tried previously to change or alter some of its equipment for women. In 1997 it earmarked more than $2 million for creating what it believed would be the world’s first combat bra. The project was eventually abandoned.

Over the last several years, the Canadian Forces have been under fire for incidents of sexual assault and misconduct, most of it directed towards women. In an April 30, 2015 report, former Supreme Court justice Marie Deschamps found that not only was sexual misconduct “endemic” in the Canadian Forces but that it was condoned by the military leadership.

During her year-long investigation, Deschamps interviewed hundreds of full- and part-time military personnel, as well as commanding officers, military police, chaplains, nurses and social workers. The interviews pointed to what she described as a “hostile sexualized environment” in the military, particularly among recruits and the junior ranks. “At the most extreme, these reports of sexual violence highlighted the use of sex to enforce power relationships,” said Deschamps’ report, “and to punish and ostracize a member of a unit.”

Vance has condemned such behaviour and has vowed to take a tough approach against involved in sexual misconduct. Although he has acknowledged that sexual misconduct is a problem in the Canadian Forces, he also recently blamed the news media for reporting on such incidents, saying the media has created a “toxic” narrative about the military.

Women as Professional Soldiers

WOMEN AS PROFESSIONAL SOLDIERS: CANADIAN VALUES ON THE FRONT LINE

Published by: On Track Magazine - CDA Institute Vol. 20 No. 2 Fall 2015

BY:  Drs. Stéfanie von Hlatky and Christian Leuprecht

On 30 April 2015, the government released the External Review into Sexual Misconduct and Sexual Harassment in the Canadian Armed Force, known as the Deschamps Report. This review, named after its external authority, former Supreme Court Justice Marie Deschamps, presented some challenging findings for the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF). Acknowledging that sexual misconduct is not unique to the CAF, the Report emphasizes its endemic nature within the military, concluding “that there is an underlying sexualized culture in the CAF that is hostile to women and LGTBQ [Lesbian, Gay, Transsexual, Bisexual, and Queer] members, and conducive to more serious incidents of sexual harassment and assault.”1 Indeed, the external review was commissioned by then Chief of the Defence Staff, General Thomas Lawson, after victims of sexual harassment made their stories public as part of journalistic investigations featured in the Canadian magazines Maclean’s and L’Actualité. 

This was not the first sex scandal for the CAF. The military went through a similar ordeal in 1998, when incidents of sexual harassment made the news and caused public outrage. Why has the CAF been so complacent? How might the Department of National Defence focus its efforts post-Deschamps? Can Canada’s action plan restore the excellent reputation it achieved when it was among the first countries to remove all barriers to women across military trades? In response to these questions, we highlight the key factors at the domestic and international levels to understand the CAF experience with gender integration. We conclude by offering some modest suggestions. 

Women in the Military: Arguments for Greater Integration 

The integration of women in the armed forces has proven controversial, especially in the combat arms (infantry, armoured reconnaissance, artillery, engineers). There are at least three good reasons for their inclusion: institutional legitimacy in a democratic society; the functional imperative; and recruitment. 

First, the citizen-soldier ideal in democratic societies holds that military organizational culture should be in line with the expectations of Canadian society and the government: If women face no professional restrictions in other fields, the military should follow suit. A CAF that is broadly representative of Canadian society is likely to be more closely aligned with that society, which translates into greater support from taxpayers who ultimately float the armed forces and its mission. Gender diversity, then, is a proxy litmus test of civilmilitary relations: How proactive is the institution as opposed to diversifying largely in response to external pressure, such as legislative change and parajudicial adjudication? 

Second, there is a case to be made for operational effectiveness and mission success. Recent military experiences in Kosovo and Afghanistan confirm that including female teams in combat units is key to fulfilling mission objectives. For cultural reasons, reaching deep into communities and including women in political activities could not have been achieved without the presence of female soldiers. Having a man search a woman at a checkpoint would be an inconceivable contravention of cultural norms in these societies. Institutional diversity also offers operational advantages by increasing the skillsets required in postmodern society and warfare.2 Hybrid wars of the future are likely to fuel demand for more women to fulfill some of these essential military tasks. However utilitarian, such instrumental arguments make a strategic case for greater integration of women, along with minorities and other underrepresented Designated Group Members (DGMs), within the CAF.

 Finally, there is the recruitment argument. Broadening the military’s applicant pool by removing barriers to certain trades will boost recruitment efforts. More applicants mean greater competition, which should result in more qualified recruits overall. Over the course of two world wars and the Cold War, the military gradually removed restrictions on the service of women until a decision by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (CHRT) in 1989 opened up all ranks and trades to women (except for submarine service, which took until 2000). Nondiscrimination legislation aside, Canada’s 1995 Employment Equity Act (EEA) actually requires federal institutions to be proactive about remedying disadvantage and under representation among DGMs: women, visible minorities, Aboriginal peoples, and persons with disabilities.

After unsuccessfully trying to negotiate exemptions to the EEA, the CAF was successful in delaying the lifting of restriction until 2002. The EEA has since resulted in the Canadian Armed Forces Employment Equity Relations, which, along with the CHRT decision, prompted the CAF to develop a methodology to establish annual recruiting targets. Still, the recruitment targets for the CAF, when compared to other security organizations, are not overly ambitious – so much so that the CAF recently altered the methodology so as to ensure that recruitment targets would not escalate. The target for women is 25.1 percent, compared to the RCMP’s target of 30 percent. Yet, the CAF falls well short of this and other DGM targets: in 2015 women make up 17 percent of officers and 13.4 percent of non-commissioned members of the Regular Force, for a total of about 14.3 percent (16.6 percent in the Reserves, for a CAF total of 15 percent). 

The delta between already conservative employment equity representation targets and actual representation rates suggest that there is room for the CAF to aim higher and do more. However, that arguably runs counter to deeply engrained premises of force cohesion and a tight institutional culture that values homogeneity and conformity. Yet, a tightening labour market due to population aging is raising the specter of stiffer competition for talent. The CAF’s functional imperative thus hinges on it becoming an employer of choice for all Canadians. 

A CAF that fails to accommodate by drawing more extensively on a more diverse recruit pool under conditions of population aging and a tightening labour market may either end up having to lower standards of recruitment – if it tries to recruit from the same yet shrinking cohort on which it has conventionally drawn – or shrinking the size of the force if it cannot find the requisite quality of recruit within its conventional yet shrinking recruit pool, neither of which are desirable. As the CAF contemplates more ambitious change, the post-Deschamps taskforce, which is mandated with implementing the core recommendations, has been looking internationally for best practices.

Benchmarking: What Are Canada’s Allies Doing?

Canada was among the first NATO allies to remove almost all professional barriers to women subsequent to the CHRT decision in 1989. Today, the CAF is actually more representative of society on a per capita basis than most NATO allies, save Hungary (20.3 percent), the United States (18 percent) and Latvia (16.5 percent), which all have more female uniformed members of their armed forces. However, allied data may not be readily comparable to Canada due to policy differentials: some countries have gender segregated roles that may affect female representation while denying men access to “feminized” occupational roles. 

The Alliance has been collecting data from each of its 28 member states through a questionnaire, the Annual National Reports to the NATO International Military Staff Office of the Gender Adviser. NATO recently enhanced data collection from its member states in the hopes of generating best practices for the Alliance on gender integration in the armed forces of NATO members.3 Comparing national legislation and policies, human resources trends, how gender is integrated in military operations, as well as sexual misconduct and harassment, NATO’s Science for Peace and Security Program – collaborating with external stakeholders and experts – concluded: (1) professional restrictions still exist for women in the  military in seven NATO member states, though all of them allow women to join the national armed forces; (2) about half of NATO’s member states support women’s integration in the military through targeted efforts by the ministry of defence; (3) over three quarters of NATO states have incorporated gender training as part of operational or pre-deployment training; (4) most if not all of NATO’s member states face significant challenges when it comes to addressing incidents of sexual misconduct and harassment.  

A non-NATO ally, Australia, has been at the forefront of establishing best practices. In 2009, the Australian Defence Force took on ambitious reforms called Pathway for Change that aimed to transform the national military culture to eliminate predatory behaviour and establish a new professional standard that is safe for all service members, regardless of gender or background. Canada has a similar opportunity with the Deschamps report and the CAF Action Plan on Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour. With Lieutenant-General Christine Whitecross at the helm of implementing this Action Plan, momentum is building to embark on an effort similar to Australia’s.  

Key to this effort will be strong ownership of the process, from the military’s top brass and all the way down, and to make the link explicit between the need for organizational culture to make policies on diversity stick and effectively change the CAF’s institutional culture. If the first few speeches by Chief of the Defence Staff, General Jonathan Vance, are any indication, he appears committed to the kind of transformative leadership that worked in the Australian Army, under their Chief, (now retired) LieutenantGeneral David Morrison.  

Conclusion 

Within the CAF, the removal of formal restrictions to service has met with some success at improving recruitment trends outside of the military’s traditional recruit pool of rural white heterosexual males. However, these incremental improvements have been spawned by outside pressure and parajudicial intervention, be it legislative or policy change, as with the 1992 Douglas case on homosexuals in the military. By and large, then, the military has been reactionary on matters of diversity. Moreover, improvements in representation are not keeping pace with the changing demographics of Canadian society. That is, inroads on improving the recruitment and representation of women remain tepid, and the delta of diversity in Canadian society relative to representation in the CAF is actually growing. As the 1989 CHRT, multiple lawsuits, and Justice Deschamp’s 2015 report suggest, the military leadership had hitherto underestimated the extent of the equality gap and the external societal, political, and legal expectations to remedy it. 

As compared to the 1990s, the CAF no longer has retention issues among DGMs: women who opt to serve appear to be no less dis/satisfied than men. And for the first time in the history of the Royal Military College of Canada, four of the top five cadets are women. So, there is some evidence to suggest that the CAF is on a positive trajectory. Nor is there robust comparative evidence that issue of harassment and sexual assault are any more pervasive in the CAF than in other workplaces or sectors of Canadian society. However, the CAF appears to have underestimated the extent to which Canadians have higher expectations of civil servants in general, and those who serve in uniform in particular.  

Rather than lagging behind, the federal government and the CAF – as the country’s single largest institutional employer – should model employment equity to the rest of Canadian society as well as our allies. But becoming an employer of choice for all Canadians will require more than the 10 recommendations outlined in the Deschamps report. First, past precedent of the CAF’s handling of gender issues suggests that those well-intentioned efforts are bound to fizzle unless federal politicians of all political stripes commit to holding the CAF and it leadership’s feet to the fire. Second, the CAF’s institutional culture will prove difficult to change unless and until there is an unwavering commitment to improving the representation of DGMs. The CAF habitually justifies under representation by observing that apparently “they don’t want to join.” If that is, indeed, the case – we are not necessarily convinced that “they” do not want to join – then perhaps the operative question to ask is: Why would they not want to join? Finally, the CAF will fundamentally have to reassess its approach to civil-military relations. Old sergeants like to say: “We’re here to defend democracy, not to practice it.” But Canadians have been clear: the CAF’s unique mission notwithstanding, they expect the CAF to reconcile the defence of democracy with democracy’s fundamental norms and values. 

Dr. Stéfanie von Hlatky is an assistant professor of political studies at Queen’s University and the Director of the Queen’s Centre for International and Defence Policy (CIDP). Her new book, The Future of US Extended Deterrence (coedited with Andreas Wenger) analyzes US security commitments to NATO (Georgetown University Press, 2015). 

Dr. Christian Leuprecht is Professor of Political Science at the Royal Military College of Canada and Senior Fellow at the Macdonald Laurier Institute. He is crossappointed to the Department of Political Studies and the School of Policy Studies at Queen’s University where he is also a fellow of the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations and the Queen’s Centre for International and Defence Policy