Canada is a world leader in terms of the proportion of women in its military. With a 15 per cent rate, the Canadian Forces have more women in uniform compared to other NATO countries where the average rate is 10 percent, according to the National Defense.
This achievement can be traced back to the role women played during the 1991 gulf war when Canada joined the international coalition led by the US to end the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait.
Richard Gimblett who served as combat officer of the supply ship recalls the Jan. 02, 1991, when nearly a quarter of the company of his ship sailing in the Persian Gulf was women. “We were about to become the first Canadian Forces unit to have women in combat”, he said.
Retired navy Pte. Sylivia Vickers was on board of the supply ship, HMCS Protecteur. She thanks the government for allowing women to go on front line because they were able to prove that they can do the job despite being called on short notice.
“We didn’t know what would be our role over there but we had really good military leaders who put us right in the front line. My main concern was representing women well,” she said.
Chief Warrant Officer Dianne Maidment who had spent ten years in the military at that time remembers receiving a call in the middle of the night saying that she had been deployed to a country she had never been before.
“For me it was a fantastic experience. Honestly, when they said we were the first women it kind of registered. Oh really? I didn’t realize we were the first women to deploy into an active zone,” She said.
“There were a lot of emotions; there was a lot of anxiety and excitement to go with it. But honestly, I was happy to be part of what was happening because something good was going to come out if this,” Chief Warrant Officer Maidment said.
In the gulf war, women served in the air, naval and at headquarters with no report of incident relating to gender-mixed environment. In the years following the success of the “Operation Friction” the Forces saw an increased in the recruitment of women.
From few hundreds female soldiers in 1990’s, Canadian Forces today has more than 14,200 women; making 15 percent of all Canadian soldiers, according to the National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces website.
The increase of women in the Canadian Forces led to changes within the military including the design of equipment. Today, equipment such as combat boots and helmets, flak jackets and rucksacks are designed to be suitable for both men and women especially in terms of protection and comfort.
Today, women in the Canadian Army contribute to its external mission success because of various roles they play in place of men; according to Stéfanie von Hlatky and Christian Leuprecht in their article Women as professional soldiers: Canadian values on the front line.
They give example of Kosovo and Afghanistan where having a man search a woman at a checkpoint would be an inconceivable contravention of cultural norms in these societies.
Even though there have been challenges like recent sexual misconduct, Maidment is happy that women have grown to occupy many leadership positions within the Canadian Forces.
“There is no one day in 35 years that I have been serving that I regretted my decision to join the military and I honor each day I get an opportunity to do so, ” Maidment said.