The New Zealand Defence Force has made significant progress in gender integration over the past seven years, an independent review has found.
There is now an improved representation and distribution of women throughout the Services, a culture that accepts and values women as well as men, a reduction in harassment incidents, and improvements to the way harassment issues are responded to.
The review says there are still some areas, however, which require work. "It is up to Defence Force leaders to consider these, and decided whether some of the systems within the services reflect modern management and the expectations of society as a whole, says NZDF Human Resources Manager (Policy) Laura Gillan.
The review into progress being made into gender integration was commissioned by the NZDF six years after what was known as the Burton Report was delivered in 1998. That report, which made 121 recommendations to the NZDF, was instigated by the Human Rights Commission in response to complaints by individuals about the way the Defence Force was managing allegations of harassment and mistreatment.
Ms Gillan says five years is a "fair amount of time" for the changes promoted in the Burton report to have bedded in, and it was important for the NZDF to now look at further improvements to its current gender initiatives.
"We are talking about cultural, systemic and attitudinal change. This review has given us some very valuable and positive feedback about the progress that has been made within the NZDF. It also gives us information about the areas where we can still make refinements. "
A former RNZAF officer, she feels while the improvements reflect in some areas changes in society's views on women, they also reflect the commitment of Defence leadership to education and awareness, and a willingness to help people look at things differently.
The review says balancing work and family responsibilities is a major issue for the NZDF. The intrinsic nature of the work meant these difficulties were never going to be able to be "solved", but there is a need to constantly look at ways of minimising them.
Ms Gillan says now may be the time to challenge some of the ways the NZDF has always done things. "Some of the ways we do things may have been appropriate 20 years ago, but not so fitting now."
"Society has changed, as have people's expectations of what their work life should be like. In the military the underlying Service needs are paramount, but I think we have to look for more clever ways of how we manage people. For example, we have always insisted that training occurs at certain points in a person's career.
Much of this training is residential courses that take a person away from their home, family and community for extended periods of time.
"We expect disruptions in terms of deployments - it is what we are training for - but in the build-up, do we have to do things the way we have always done them? Without ever letting go of the core values of the military, we now need to look at how we can make that commitment to service less of an impingement – perceived or otherwise – so that Service personnel feel they can manage the demands placed on them."