MoD ‘needs women generals’

THE military needs more women in the role of generals, a top civil servant at the Ministry of Defence has said.

Ursula Brennan said progress had been made in evening up the gender imbalance in the armed forces. But speaking after a conference on women working in defence and security, she said the MoD was “from some perspectives, still in a depressing place”.

The 59-year-old MoD permanent secretary said “the world will not end” if women went into jobs which for a long time had been filled by men, adding: “They’re not going to hit the nuclear trigger button by mistake.”

When she joined the MoD in 2010, Brennan said it was “like stepping back in time” because there were no women in senior posts. “There are some notable exceptions…but it is not a place that is awash with senior women,” she said.

When Brennan joined the civil service in 1975, only 4 per cent of the armed forces were female. And while 60 per cent of civilians in the MoD were women, most were secretaries and only 5 per cent in senior roles.

Now women make up 10 per cent of the armed forces, and 12 per cent of women in service are officers – but none at the highest level. Brennan said the military top brass needed to make a “difficult psychological leap…they need to get on with it, and promote some women”.