Australian Army Journal

ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE
Securing Army’s Future:
Enhancing Career Management
women and people from non-Anglo backgrounds future capability requirements
will not be met. While Army’s ECM applies to all officers, it draws its initial insights
predominantly from the experience of women in the Army — and the ECM will
necessarily continue to evolve to embrace the breadth of talent and diversity
resident within the nation. Acknowledging the challenge Army faces in attracting
a more ethnically and culturally diverse workforce, this discussion will now
concentrate on the question of gender.
Army’s senior leadership does not assume that reforms to provide gender-neutral
employment will drastically change the demographic nature of certain elements of
the service, for example the ground combat arms. Overseas trends, particularly in
Canada and New Zealand, indicate that very few women choose this career path.
Canada for example recently reported that women represented 2.4% of its combat
arms. 13 That said, those women who do choose this career path have proven
themselves highly effective professionals within strong combat teams. Despite recent
media discussions being somewhat fixated on women in combat roles, Army is
cognisant that greater numbers of women are more likely to be drawn into other
areas of service. Whatever career path an individual chooses, Army’s leadership is
intent on providing that choice, subject to each applicant meeting gender-neutral
physical, educational, intellectual and psychological employment standards.
Unsurprisingly, women in the Army are as diverse in their views, interests, needs
and wants as any other sector of the community. However there are three key
aspirations that have been consistently raised through forums and workshops in
the development of the ECM:
• remove all gender barriers and explicit or implicit employment discrimination
• design a career model that assumes our people may, at a time of their choosing,
have family care responsibilities
• employ all Army’s people on merit
While the ECM addresses some aspects of each of these aspirations, every officer
and soldier in the Army also has his or her part to play. When the stereotypical man
explains that ‘I did this and I did that’ and the stereotypical woman says, ‘we did
this and we did that’, both are often saying the same thing. When a man eagerly
steps forward for early promotion and a woman suggests she might need another
year of development, they may both be equally ready. When a man reflects on his
successful career it has often been enabled by a supportive partner and caregiver;
when a woman reflects on her career, successful or otherwise, it has often been
Australian Army Journal
Culture edition 2013, Volume X, Number 3 Page 146