The baton to champion Equity and the integration of women at all levels and trades into the Services has been passed between successive Chiefs of Defence Force for many years. Chiefs of Defence Force have shown leadership, commitment and the courage to be publicly accountable for equity and in particular gender integration. Further, all Chiefs of Defence Force have been prepared to be ahead of the legislators regarding the employment of women in combat roles, a situation that continues today.
The integration of women into the Services began in 1977 and was a huge culture change for the NZDF. This initiative began a journey that continues to the present. Integration was as much about pay and opportunities as addressing inequities. The fundamental issue that needed to be addressed was the pervasiveness of masculinity in the military culture and the pressures put on women to conform to a masculine set of values and standards.
The process of gender integration has been a string of phased initiatives all demonstrating the commitment of successive Chiefs of Defence Force and pioneering Service women prepared to make a difference.
“To be the best Defence Force in everything we do”, the NZDF needs a workforce clear in its direction, working smarter as a fully integrated force. The new Diversity Strategy “Valuing Diversity: Leadership in Action” is an integral part in providing this clear direction. The strategy signals a move to a more sophisticated understanding of equity in the organisation focusing on diversity as a vehicle for further change.
The intent of the Diversity Strategy is to continue to build on the sound progress already made. We will be seeking to further enhance our organisational strength and operational effectiveness by embracing diversity in the coming years. The Diversity Strategy is an integral part of the journey towards changes in work practices and doing things differently to be more operationally effective.
The Strategy signals a clear move to a more sophisticated understanding of equity in the organisation. The emphasis of this ‘move forward’ is to focus on diversity as a vehicle for further change. The objective of the Strategy is to optimise performance through strengthening of NZDF’s inclusive culture, recognising that this strength is partly derived from the differences that each individual brings to the organisational team.
Valuing and leveraging diversity is an integral part of competent leadership. NZDF requires competent leadership at all levels that embodies different perspectives and approaches that draw upon different backgrounds and truly values a variety of opinion and insight. For this reason the Diversity Strategy is subtitled “Leadership in Action”.