 Okay, ladies and gentlemen, ambassadors. You're all very, very welcome here to the Institute for International European Affairs for this event which has been supported and co-sponsored by the Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish embassies with the support of our own defense forces, and particularly the Office of the Chief of Staff. I'd like to thank the ambassadors and their staffs for organizing the event alongside their respective defense attaches. This is a comparative analysis, a comparative look at women in the armed forces. It has a particular Nordic dimension, which is always very interesting for us in Ireland, as we see many parallels with some of our Nordic neighbors. And as Ireland redefines itself in European terms, and we move ever northwards in economic and political terms, it's always interesting to look at the Nordic streets to compare and contrast. And I know that the Chief of Staff has had his own very great priority placed in personnel development within defense forces and particularly in the recruitment of women to the defense forces. Can I also say on a personal note, this is an absolute thrill as the child of military personnel. My mother served in the U.S. Air Force for a number of years and I never forgot, remind my father, that she outranked him for the entirety of her career. So as I say, I'm delighted to welcome you all here. Just to run through the speakers very quickly, immediately to my right is Chief of Staff, Mark Mallett, who will be well-known to all of you. I'd also like to welcome, secondly Emma Möller, who's a second lieutenant or lieutenant in the Irish tradition in the Swedish Air Force. She also studied the Swedish Defense University. Next to her is Major Inka Niskanan, the Finnish Air Force, and she teaches air warfare studies at the Defense University in Finland. And finally to my far right, and I'm going to make an absolute butchery of the name and I do apologize in advance, is Director-General Shershti Klaibow of the Department of Confidence and Legal Services with the Norwegian Ministry of Defense. Each of our speakers will speak for about 10 minutes on the record, and then we'll go to Europe House Rules, effectively Chattel House Rules thereafter, so I'll ask you to respect that, and I will leave the timing of the presentations entirely in the hands of our guests, because as military personnel, I know they are absolutely prompt and precise, so there's absolutely no need for me to pose any kind of discipline from the chair. So without any further ado, I'd like to ask Admiral Mallett if he addresses. Yeah, actually, it'll be about 14 minutes, I'm sorry. And if I go and start ditching some of it now, it would be very problematic, it's your excellencies, distinguished guests, it's a great privilege to be asked to contribute to the IAA discussion on women in the armed forces. For two centuries, two features have defined the military world. Firstly, he's largely adopted a male definition of leadership, and secondly, the traditional view is that the primary measure of a military's effectiveness is its war-fighting capacity, but these are changing. To be honest, serving for decades in our male-dominated organization is not an ideal environment to gain in understanding of the importance of gender, the role of women, equality, and the significance of diversity and inclusion. That being said, understanding these themes are essential prerequisites for commenting on women in the armed forces. I'm convinced that institutionalizing a gender perspective and driving diversity and inclusion are vitally-neighburners for optimizing decision-making in a world of increasing complexity. Our defense forces is a key component of the security architecture of the state, and when all is said and done, it's part of the bedrock, which underpins our sovereignty, providing a framework for the institutions of civil society, where people are free, where the institutions of state function, and where there is protection of the vulnerable. Human security is one of many emerging paradigms for understanding state and global vulnerabilities. All over the world, we see challenges to human security and the institutions of civil society, with a growing numbers of security consumers increasing especially in Middle East and North Africa and beyond. At home, our defense forces is a security provider across three domains, land, air, and sea. At jurisdiction, which is almost three times the size of Germany, where we have sovereignty or sovereign rights. But in the international environment, where the appetite for consumption of security is insatiable, our government has authorized over 600 defense forces personnel to serve in 14 missions in 14 countries in the one sea, predominantly in peace support and humanitarian assistance type operations, and women serve in most of these missions. The nature of complexity is growing, with challenges in some cases being what have been described by Rital and Weber as wicked. These are in some cases exacerbated by vectors such as climate change and population increase, probably feeding continued migration, with the European pull factor of health, wealth, and security, contrasting with the push factors of poor health, shorter life expectancy, poverty, and insecurity elsewhere. Positive vectors include the growth in automation, robotics, technology, and explosion in data, data underpins information, driving the creation of knowledge and understanding, and three things are clear to me, that if we fail to leverage open source knowledge available to us, we increase risk. If our enemy leverages data and open source knowledge available to them, they become more formidable. And the simple reality is that new technology and new ways of doing things are being created every day with the answers to challenging problems often outside organizational boundaries. This means increasingly we are going to have to innovate. That means networking and collaborating. Darwin said that in the long history of humankind, those who collaborated are improvised most, most effectively prevailed. And every way I look, I see that militaries are shifting from siloed mentalities to ones that are open and diverse with diverse institutional arrangements for the provision of security. These arrangements are characterized by a desire for greater agility and openness to greater diversity in external networks, breaking down the walled garden that typically characterized the military. There's a growing recognition that the real strength of militaries is not so much just their capacity for war fighting, but rather their capacity for conflict resolution. Militaries are increasingly looking at the provision of security from the continuum of the heat of conflict through the phases of stabilization, institution building and restoration of civil society. Indeed, this is reflected in the prioritization of the integrated approach in the European Union. In the context of complexity, there are a few things as challenging indeed as wicked as those that are associated with conflict resolution where the effect of suboptimal decision-making can have a devastating impact. In my experience, the greater diversity in external networks, the greater the opportunity for learning and new ways of doing things. And having arrived at this position a number of years ago, that stimulated my interest in researching how we as an organization were structured to leverage our internal environment. A link between external and internal organizational diversity became apparent. In the past, militaries were often siloed, not having formal strategies for diversity and inclusion, and most of all, not having a real strategic approach to either institutionalizing a gender perspective or achieving better gender balance. And that's changing. For Ireland, the policy umbrella to address many of these issues has been provided for in our last white paper on defense with strategies in place are being developed. And when we look at innovation, we can tend to look at it primarily from the perspective of technology driven by science, technology, engineering, and maths. We don't always look at it from the perspective of institutional relationships, which are mainly people-centric and linked to the humanities and values. Theodore Zeldin asked, when will we make the same breakthroughs in the way we treat each other as we have made in technology? So in the context of today's discussion, it is on our internal environment that I want to dwell for the final few minutes. Achieving diversity in our internal environment is critical and three points are worthy of consideration. Firstly, breaking down silos, silos undermine trust, efficiency, and effectiveness. Secondly, striving for diversity and inclusion across teams such as culture, creed, age, sexual orientation, and gender is vital. And thirdly, institutionalizing a gender perspective and improving gender balance are essential. The evidence in the literature is overwhelming. Improvement in gender balance at all levels facilitates better decision-making and creative processes. Therefore, it would seem logical that having enough women in the armed forces will help ensure appropriate positive outcomes. It's not just a political issue. It's not just a market issue. It's not just a civil society issue. It's a military issue because it's a capability issue. As a military leader, your responsibilities are clear and that is to ensure your organization is fit for purpose and is optimized with capabilities that achieve the best outcomes. Getting gender right in our organizations will, I believe, lead to better outcomes, making us more formidable in areas such as conflict resolution and peacekeeping. To succeed in developing a more diverse and gender balanced workforce, military leaders must be prepared to stand up to the inevitable pushback, driving commitment and ensuring accountability, even if the initial perceptions are negative. Leaders need to do what they believe is right, not just to improve an organization's performance, but to create a better world. Studies show that the larger the gender gap is, the more likely a country is to be involved in interstate or intrastate conflict, to be the first to resort to force in such conflicts and to resort to higher levels of violence. What happens to women affects the security, stability, prosperity, corruption, health, regime type and the power of the state. It provides a portal to a link between human security and state security. It is a fact that sexual exploitation and abuse and gender-based violence are part of, if not the main effort in many conflicts. In some instances, they have been codified as war crimes, crimes against humanity and in certain instances, the most terrible of all crimes, the crime of genocide. So it's in this context and the duty of military to society and government, it's no longer good enough to treat the matters of gender, diversity and inclusion as politically correct supporting efforts, but rather to move them to the center of military's main effort, articulating their interdependence with capability development and especially in the context of conflict resolution. Quite simply, institutionalizing a gender perspective within our ministry, driving greater gender balance, strengthens us as an organization, strengthens the institutions of civil society and strengthens our nation, making us a better reflection of the society we defend, protect and serve. Ireland has embraced UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and the subsequent UN resolutions. We've nested our Defence Forces Action Plan under our National Action Plan. We've put significant effort into recruiting more women into our Defence Forces with some success. We've launched our diversity and inclusion strategy and for instance, the establishment of women's networks and for that matter, indeed, LGBT networks in all our commands. We've a number of initiatives aimed at institutionalizing a gender perspective and addressing unconscious bias. And by the way, the Defence Forces Gender Advisor is a man. Women, gender equality, diversity and inclusion in a male-dominated organization is as much about men as it is about women. The fact that our doctrine has always been nuanced towards that of conflict resolution rather than war fighting has meant that we have found it easier to make the case to have more women within our force. However, getting more women into our armed force is not just a military issue. It's a societal issue. Just as achieving greater gender balance in male-dominated organizations is a societal issue and not just a woman issue. It's also, of course, a leadership issue. Focusing on women in the armed forces, for example, must be done in a broader societal context. Studies show how women in most countries are socialized from a young age to fulfill certain stereotypical feminine roles such as caregivers and not too up for careers such as science, technology, engineering and maths and indeed, military. Conversely, the socialization of young males predisposes them to more masculine pursuits and these observations are reflected in the evidence which show women are less likely to come forward to join the military. Every time I hear a call to try and attract more women towards science, technology, engineering and maths, I say that should read STEM squared, science, technology, engineering, maths and military. There is strong evidence of various gatekeepers such as parents and career counselors not championing careers in the military for women. Leo Wilson said, we are drowning in information while starving for wisdom. In the context of women in the armed forces, we have all the information we need. What we lack is the wisdom. Information drives the creation of knowledge and understanding but the bridge between understanding and wisdom is values. Having an understanding without values is more likely to lead to short-termism, populism and unilateralism. Perspectives that will fail to capture the totality of the opportunity that women in the armed forces bring. Therefore, in addressing complex problems such as women in the armed forces, we should do so from a framework of values, values-based multilateralism, recognizing that no one state has all the answers. Desire for change is reflected in the codification of the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals with Goal 5 specifying the attainment of gender equality and empowerment of women and girls and I'm delighted that David who is co-sponsor of this did such a remarkable achievement. National plans for the Sustainable Development Goals provide a societal framework beneath which national action plans for women, peace and security could be nested. Abuse and violence are not ameliorated by bombs and bullets and yet we see the conditions for even greater abuse and violence are set to increase as we look to the future. The philosopher Mary Parker Follett said, leadership is not defined by the exercise of power but by the capacity to increase the sense of power in those who are led. The most essential role of the leader is to create more leaders. Institutionalizing the Sustainable Development Goals enhancing gender balance in our militaries and improving our understanding of security and the interplay between state and human security require strong values-based leadership, leadership that is vital for multilateralism. And my last paragraph is gone. So in short, we need to have an institutionalized, that value-based leadership, not just in the military but also in the societal institutions that drive the creation of embracing this requirement to institutionalize women in the military as being a normal factor within our countries and not just in the Irish state. Thank you very much. Technology demands that we start in the other industry. Okay. In the other end of the spectrum. My apologies, thank you very much. Thank you. Excellencies, General Admiral, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the Norwegian Minister of Defense, I'm very thankful for being given the ability opportunity to come here today and address the topic of women in the Norwegian Armed Forces. This is a topic close to my heart and I believe a very important one. So I will try to focus on two issues. Firstly, why do we need more women in the armed forces? And secondly, how should we proceed to achieve that goal? The military is a peculiar institution. It both, it inhabits an area, both integrated into society and the political sphere, but also in a way separate from the society and the political sphere. The armed forces do not exist in a vacuum. They have themselves understood that greater diversity should be a goal because they cannot afford not to. We face a traditionalist organization facing up the need for modernization. The security policy situation of today is rather gloomy. We see increased tensions between NATO and Russia due to the crisis in Ukraine. We see asymmetric threats, terrorism, we see cyber attacks from non-governmental actors as well as governmental actors and ongoing wars in the Middle East. In this situation of instability and unpredictability, we need to make sure that our armed forces deliver operational capability in order to face the security challenges around us. And to do so, we of course need to focus on military equipment, modern and updated military equipment. We need to focus on substantial exercises and training, but first and foremost, we must focus on recruiting the right personnel in order to achieve operational capability. This is a prerequisite for improving our military. So our nations all rely on searching further and wider than previously to ensure future military capability. So in the search for talent, no organization can afford to leave out 50% of the population. This is clearly demonstrated when studying Norwegian demographics and social history. The workforce is shrinking, leading to a wider search for talent. Moreover, not only are women fully integrated into the workforce and higher education, they are today in majority in the best universities and constitute the main part of the most prestigious university subjects that there is medicine, law, psychology, not just to mention some of them. This phenomenon is called feminization of society by several social scholars. And it's not only an Norwegian phenomenon, it's a phenomenon we see a lot of places all around the world. So women are also more professionally mobile than men, ceasing opportunities previously reserved for men. New female role models are emerging and gender awareness is catching out on in the face of stories of sexual harassment. The armed forces don't only need the strongest among us, the ones that can carry the heaviest backpacks and run quickest. They also need to recruit greater diversity, people with knowledge of science, technology, culture, languages, and social science. I repeat, we need the best suited and the most motivated regardless of color of the skin or sex. Conscription is a Norwegian institution, it links the armed forces to society. Moreover, it is tied with Norwegian nationhood and egalitarianism dating back to the constitution of 1814. In current practice, a conscription service is reserved for a select group of individuals through meaningful participation. It is not an add-on to the pool of professional soldiers. It is a separate entity and brand. And in our view, this has proven a recipe for effective capacity building. It is also an affirmation of the continued ties between the population and the armed forces. And not the least, it's a natural engine for talent search across genders. On October 2014, the Norwegian parliament changed the law to extend mandatory conscription to all citizens, both women and men. Universal conscription, we call it. The new law came into effect 1st of January 2015. Norway is the first country in NATO to give men and women equal rights and obligations when it comes to protecting their country's interests, values and territory. Now other countries may follow suit. Sweden is among them. It's a visible reform and perhaps even a silent revolution. I would say it's a game changer. The state no longer reserves the military profession to men. Men are no longer seen as the natural preference. In effect, it takes gender off the table when it comes to soldiering. This impacts not only the armed forces, but society and individuals. Every year, several thousand girls emerge from their military service, having learned new skills and having been tried and tested. That is bound to affect them as individuals as well as society at large and their surroundings. We do not have a goal that we should obtain 50% female soldiers. We want to recruit the best, the most motivated and the best suited. But after we introduced universal conscription, the amount of female soldiers has increased dramatically and it's increased from about 12% until now we have 24% of the female soldiers. And I am convinced that these numbers will continue to increase. So how has this gone? The military leadership reports a change in culture as a result of the shift. At the same time, Norwegian soldiers continue their training and service as usual. This is not an experiment suspending ordinary military activity. It is not a game. Our operational capability is too important to enter into such a game. We often get questions, particularly from foreign observers about public sentiments towards universal conscription. In general, there is very little controversy on this issue. Conscription is still highly regarded and it has become very popular to spend one year in service. Universal conscription is supported by the majority. On the other hand, some commentators claim that it is political correctness gone wild and that critical views are being censored. My take on this is as follows. Having given the order to conscript both genders, we now have to let the armed forces start their job. We have to allow them leeway to develop their practice in selection and training that ensures sustained operational capability. We have researchers who monitor progress and give their honest and candid feedback. And we do insist that there should be no different spheres for male and female soldiers. Or discrimination or harassment. Women must feel truly welcome. There must not exist mechanisms to keep them out or to keep them in their place. And the transition is going well. I will quote our Chief of Defence when visiting the Military Women's Network meeting in January this year. He said, I have had no reports from my units of women performing under standard. On the contrary, women conscripts are highly motivated and well suited. They are selected and they report that they enjoy the military service very well, even better than the male soldiers do. There are still myths surrounding women in the military profession. One particular stubborn one is that women in combat are said to invoke the protective instincts of their male colleagues, thus distracting these men from the war fighting tasks. It is sometimes referred to as the Israeli myth since it's supposedly based on Israeli experiences in the War of Independence in 1948. There have been very few studies to support that myth. Israeli historians refute this myth more than 20 years ago. In fact, the Israeli Defence Forces are moving towards greater gender integration in their combat forces. The international trend is more and more often that women and men fight side by side. And a number of women are receiving commendations for their bravery. Truth be told, women have served in the Norwegian Armed Forces for decades. The commitment to attract women into the armed forces is where it all starts. If determination is strong, results are more likely to follow. If dedication is half-hearted, failure is much more likely to follow. In the case of policies towards women and the armed forces, we see national cultures shining through. Gender roles are central to how a society is organized, so also in the case of the military. Therefore, one practice that works for one country may not necessarily work for other countries. We have all our own idiosyncrasies that guide our practice, and we also experience trial and error. But the clearest lessons learned is the following. Structural barriers and enablers make a big difference. I've already highlighted universal conscription. But selection practices and marketing campaigns may be other examples. For instance, in Norway, we always, in all our campaigns, in all our pamphlets, we now always show a lot of pictures of female officers and soldiers. Norway is often boosted to have some of the most general, equal policies in the world. In some areas, that's also the case. We have among the highest rates of women in the workforce. More than 60% of the students of higher education are women. Parental leaves are generous. But the military may also boost some strong accomplishments. The armed forces, the Norwegian Armed Forces, were made gender equal in 1985, when all positions became accessible to men and women. In 1992, we saw the first female fighter pilot. In 1995, the first female submarine commander. Currently, the chief of Air Force is a woman. And second in command of the army is a woman. The first female UN force commander was Major General Christine Lund in 2014, in Cyprus. She currently leads the UN true supervision in the Middle East, UNSO. These military women have made the rank after decades of dedication and no lack of persistence. The rate of service women is still too low. It's under 12%. But we are seeing a gradual increase. We are on the right path. And I'm convinced that the introduction of the universal conscription will help us and will increase the number of female service women in the years to come. So, I would like to end this note that we are on the right path. However, things will not automatically fall into place. If we are to deliver on the pledge of a reinforced gender perspective, as well as gender balancing, there needs to be a steady focus on gender problem areas. One such area is the challenge of achieving a decent work-life balance. It takes dedication and will to achieve this balance. And it should not be up to the parent. This is a concern for the leadership. Establishing flexible career paths makes sense, in which it is acceptable to occasionally move sideways instead of upwards to rest on the landing between steps. Norway is a stretched out country geographically with long distances from north to the south. Our armed forces are positioned outside the areas where the new urban generation probably want to live, far away from the major cities and towns. So beneficial commute options must be upheld. This is good family policy. Fewer international deployments have led to less pressure on the remaining parents, but we need a good system in place for periods in which deployments may become more frequent. We want our personnel to be parents and to have a full life and to be focused on their work. This is a never-ending goal. Our military has not escaped sexual harassment. In a study of 2010, negative sides of military culture were identified as one of the main causes for women leaving the military. A military psychologist recently argued that the recent military women have not joined the Me Too campaign is that they do not like to be seen as victims. The cases are there, but reporting them is an anathema to most. For any country with the ambition of increasing its rate of service women, it's imperative to really want it. To comply a concerted effort. Ask yourself and your staff what make people leave. Deal with the tough issues. Do not disregard the so-called soft issues. They may prove to be harder than you think. So I'm very happy to be here today and to listen to the experiences from my Nordic colleagues. And I think this is important arenas where we can learn from each other and hopefully we will all achieve in moving the gender balance in the right direction in our armed forces. Thank you so much. I'm thinking it's Major Niskanen who's next. Check him with the technology. When the AI comes, we'll all be taking over some computers. Ladies and gentlemen, it's a great privilege and an honor to be here today in such distinguished company. During the next few minutes, I'd like to share with you some thoughts on the Finnish perspective of women in the armed forces. My perspective is probably going to be a bit more tactical than what the previous distinguished speakers gave you. So hopefully it will give some insight on the whole picture on this issue. I'd like to begin by laying out the framework for Finnish defense. And defense is really the key word, the key term here. Finland does not have armed forces. It's all about defense and so that's why we call them defense forces. Homeland defense and ensuring the territorial sovereignty is really the main business for us. And the three first points are the key points for Finnish defense. At the same time, simultaneously, Finland is also very strongly committed to international cooperation, not just within Europe, but within also the United Nations and OSCE framework. And she is very active in participating in international peacekeeping missions and commit in international burden sharing. Concept of comprehensive security is something that we often get questions about. This is something that dates back to, this is a historical question, dates back to Finnish winter war during the Second World War. Finland at that time was really a nation in arms, so it was not just an effort for the defense only, but for the whole society. The desired end state for this concept of comprehensive security is, of course, securing vital functions of the society and guaranteeing well-being and security for Finnish citizens in any and all circumstances. It is. It would be a joint effort by the administration and business life, as well as NGOs and individual citizens. The Finns rank very high on statistical polls when asking for their will to defend their country in case of war. One of the highest in Europe going up to 92%. But it's not just a pretty concept we really do plan, prepare and train within the whole society for different types of disruptions, crisis and even scenarios where military force would be used against our country. So that's really the framework for Finnish defense. I'd like to take two minutes to present myself. I am an officer, major in the Finnish Air Force, joined the force in 1997. As a conscript, I volunteered for military service and after one year of military service decided to go for a career in the Air Force. Been trained as a fighter pilot, 15 years active in a fighter squadron in Eastern Finland and like I would said during the introductions, nowadays I teach air warfare studies at the National Defense University. During the little over 20 years that I've been in the force, I've seen the Finnish society change and I've seen the defense forces change. So the Finnish defense still relies on conscription and reserves created by the system of conscriptions. Of conscription, about 28 conscripts trained every year. Women may volunteer, but they do not get the call out. So compared with a Norwegian system of universal conscription which is different to begin with. Then again, I kind of want to stress that it's only the Finnish young men who get called. But the women volunteer enjoy equal opportunities. They have to fulfill the same requirements. There's absolutely no difference. All the requirements are the same. For example, I as a fighter pilot went through exactly the same training as my male colleagues which from my point of view makes sense because it's all about competence. It's all about military capability and generally plays no role in how well you fly your plane. From the very beginning all services branches and any type of training has been open to women. No position is excluded for women. Military service was made available for Finnish women in 1995. So a little bit later than in Norway, for example. Since then, well over 8,000 Finnish women have served. Of these women, it's about 60 to 70% who qualify for leadership training during their military service. That goes for NCOs as well as reserve officers. The percentage is quite high and we think that it's probably because they're all volunteers that they're more motivated maybe than their male colleagues. 10% qualify for officer training and I should say apply for officer training. Probably more would qualify but talking about career officer as shown here. After one year of military service people who decide to go for a career will apply for military academy which is called National Defence University. You can see the hashtag they boast to be the most disciplined university in Finland. I'll leave it to you to decide whether that's really true or not. There you can see the programs on the slide. As I like to talk about myself I'll just say that I just finished a general staff officer course. This is where I am at my career at a soon 44 years of age and a rank of major. Doctoral program is something that doesn't concern each and every one. It's also on a voluntary basis. Still have a few remarks on Finnish military women and crisis management operations. As I said before it's both through United Nations, European Union, NATO and OSCE operations that will save Finnish women working towards a common goal of peacekeeping. About 25% of Finnish civil servants in these missions are women. However, the overall number including military personnel is just about 5% of the overall percentage. The gender aspect is a very important element in crisis management operations and Finland is committed to recruiting more women in operations. There's definitely similar points that the distinguished speaker from Norway touched upon during her presentation. So I'd like to conclude this very short presentation just a few remarks on where we are today. And the first one is really something that came up during both previous presentations the funds forces not in a vacuum but definitely a very important part of the society and we always say that the defense forces is a Finnish society in miniature size. And as the Finnish society is diverse and women are very active from the very top positions politically in business life so on then maybe we'll see the same development happening in the defense forces in the future. In the defense forces women are fully integrated but still few numbers. It's only been a little more than 20 years that women have been serving. And my last point and this is concerning especially the peacekeeping missions it is clear to us that more female peacekeepers are needed because there are a lot of sensitive difficult issues that need to be worked with the local populations and sometimes for depending on the culture depending on the situation any type of scenario it is probably a little bit easier for a local woman to go and take something up with a female peacekeeper instead of a male in a uniform. So with these points I'd like to present a Finnish perspective on women in defense forces actually thank you for your attention. Thank you very much Major Lieutenant, please. Thank you for letting me come here and speak today I will talk about the Swedish perspective. So I start direct and are you sure about that or can women do military service? That's questions I got before I started my basic training 2010. It wasn't from people within the armed forces it was from people outside people I met like teachers classmates friends they really had no clue my name is Emma Mölle as I was yeah and I'm a second lieutenant in the Swedish Air Force and I will tell you about my experience when I started my military career from 2010 until today I have worked both as a soldier and I'm currently working as an officer Swedish Armed Forces works together with other parts of the society the prejudices I met before I started my basic training were from people outside which means that the armed forces is not an out and on unit we're not working alone it was a question about whether women shall be or not be a part of the armed forces which also means that the armed forces is a place for everyone we have really need women in the Air Force or in the whole army or in the Marine every unit need women Sweden together with other countries do have international framework like UN Declaration of Human Rights and Women, Peace and Security these framework are the core to our national framework consisting of legislation policies programs and documents and from our national framework the armed forces has visions and steering documents one of those is gender mainstreaming it's something we work a lot with in armed forces basically the gender mainstreaming is found in political goals, legislation and steering documents and it mostly referred to the strategic level but it all comes down to every unit every unit need to have action plans what should we do how should we do implement the gender mainstreaming in our organization there are three perspectives that represent armed forces gender mainstreaming it's the rights which means that women and men alike shall have the same rights and obligations to serve in the armed forces and with equal opportunities to be effective in order to advance on equal terms we also have the recruitment and retention which means that the Swedish armed forces is a modern employer and must reflect the society which is established to protect and serve as to say the society's core values of democracy democracy, human rights and integrity of the state and the third part is the war fighting capability and it's the third perspective and that means that the war fighting capability will increase and strengthen when we recruit the most suitable soldier from a wider selection to succeed and implement the gender mainstreaming the armed forces is educating the personnel in gender mainstreaming but it doesn't matter what position you have or in what organization you work everybody gets this education everything to make it as a daily work we don't have it something you add on you should see it as any other education or any other working one of the actions taken by the Air Force to implement the gender mainstreaming and due to the action plans the Air Force do have mentors for all new officers both men and women the main purpose of that is to get a closer connection to the organization and somewhere you can talk to like if you get leadership problems or you have concerns about something you can always ask your mentor sometimes you don't want to go to your commander with the questions you have so I use my mentor for that if you're going to the statistics one part of the goal the Swedish Armed Forces has is to increase the amount of women and you might wonder how many women do the Swedish Armed Forces have the Swedish Armed Forces do have 30% women today and we have had that for almost 10 years it hasn't increased or decreased the only part is the officers it has increased but not so much the amount of soldiers has both gone up and down during the last 10 years it's still, it's steady during my first month of basic training we were 50% women and 50% men that's very unique I will probably never be in a unit like that again after my conscript service I started to work as a soldier it was a very small unit working with psychological operations for almost 2.5 years on that platoon there was never another woman there at first it surprised me because it was a very big contrast from what I had before but I got used to it I had very good colleagues they didn't care whether I was a woman or I'm a man because we all had the same mission we were there to be very good soldiers but the fact to be the only woman in that platoon could complicate things sometimes because to be able to succeed with psychological operations you sometimes need women because a woman can communicate with other people that maybe not the men can I did I didn't get that job because I was the strongest or fastest or the most accurate shooter it was because the military capability would increase I did get that job because I was a woman because I am a woman because I had something that other soldiers didn't have I had the ability to communicate with 50% of the population in Afghanistan who went there in 2012 one way to increase the amount of women in the armed forces is the gender neutral conscript service 2010 was the last year of conscript service for men since then we had a system based on recruitment and volunteer people both men and women from January this year we do now have a gender neutral conscript service it is based on voluntary personnel and conscripts and until the end of this year we are in need of 4000 recruits to fill the empty employment in armed forces last summer when I became an officer since then when I started to work I have worked in training new recruits and I will continue doing that because it is a very good job a recruit or a soldier does not only learn how to be a fast and accurate shooter the hardest part to learn a soldier according to me is when to fire and especially when not to fire these decisions must be based on the core values the military mission involves rights and obligations to the use of force we might put ours or other people's lives in danger that's why we have has to be very competent we need to be professional we need to have good or even great values the recruits do have a lot of participation during their conscript service we educate them in what is sexual harassment discrimination and how we should act around those questions we educate them in what it is and how to act if it happens because as we all know it does the development in those questions are going forward 2010 when I did my conscript service we didn't have any of that in our education and today they are having a lot from the first day since we do know it happened with sexual harassment the military or the Swedish Armed Forces was a part of the Me Too movement it spread widely on social media all over the world and as we know the military is a part of the society so the movement spread in the Armed Forces as well the movement made it clear no matter where you work or with what there is always employers that do have problems with individuals I think it's important to talk about the fact that it is individuals not the whole organization it is one or several individuals that is the problem because we do have legislation work, policies we have all the documents all we need is to talk about it the main purpose of the movement was to make the military a better place for everyone and to show that even if we are good we are not we are not finished we have to work more our Supreme Commander made it very clear that that type of behavior is not okay he said actions like that is not acceptable the employees that cannot live according to the Armed Forces core values has nothing to do in the Armed Forces so if we go back to those questions even though we have things we have to work on and we are not perfect but we do need more women in the organization just to be more equal so if I could answer those questions now or I wish I could 2010 but today I am really sure about that and women can do military service they even should do and I want to do it because it is a great job thank you