Growing numbers around the World testifying to the importance of the role played by ...
The military is thought to be the exclusive preserve of men, but the numbers say otherwise. For more than two decades, with the enactment of Law No. 380/1999, women have been in the Army, Air Force and Navy in addition to the Guardia di Finanza and Carabinieri. According to data published in March by the Chamber of Deputies, there are nearly 18,000 female military personnel in our country, including 1,924 Officers, 2,663 Non-Commissioned Officers, 12,694 Graduate and Troop Military, and 664 Female Cadets of military academies and schools.
There has been an increase in attendance especially in recent years, with 15,995 in 2018 and 17,707 at the end of 2019. Also confirming the interest in the military is a survey commissioned by the Defense General Staff to "EUMETRA" on the attractiveness of a military career for Italian boys, which shows that girls, theoretically, find the proposed enlistment in the Beloved Forces more attractive than boys: 52 percent of women versus 48 percent of men surveyed.
Italy is the last country among NATO members to open its doors to women's military service, however, introducing an important innovation that makes our armed forces in step with the times: the equalization of women and men. From enlistment to career, in fact, there is no discrimination; they attend the same courses at military training institutes/training schools and can reach the same ranks in the military career. In the Carabinieri Corps there are already female officers in the ranks of Brigadier General and Colonel from the Forestry Corps and State Police, while in the Army in about three years the first female officer will be evaluated for advancement to the rank of Colonel.
The lack of discrimination is not only on paper - the Report on the State of Military Discipline and the Status of the Organization of the Armed Forces (Year 2020) points out - but also in deeds. Women are guaranteed the same opportunities as soldiers without limitations. Personnel to be deployed to international bodies in Italy and abroad are chosen through exclusive selection of individual and professional requirements possessed.
Women entered the war during World War I with a battalion of Cossacks disguised as men led by Russian Marija Bochkareva, called the "Women's Death Battalion." In World War II, the women's battalions saw mainly British and U.S. servicemen in the field employed as conscripts or in anti-aircraft defense. Also famous were the 100,000 female soldiers of Tito's People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia.
Internationally, the army with the largest number of women is the Israeli army. Since its establishment in 1948 there has been compulsory military service for women lasting two years. Today 40 percent of the army is made up of women, most of whom are employed in the national territory.
In the various war scenarios still open from the Russian-Ukrainian conflict to civil wars and uprisings in Middle Eastern countries to the People's Republic of China's military, there is an increase in the presence of female personnel.
Women soldiers very often become symbols as well. In Iraq the female peshmerga battalion fighters made up of Kurdish women fighting Isis. Enlisted instead in the ranks of Islamic fundamentalism against America are women suicide bombers. In the recent Russian-Ukrainian conflict, many are the women deployed on the side of the Ukrainian people, such as Olena Kushnir, a staff sergeant and medic who died on Easter Day during the siege in Mariupol after getting her son to safety through a humanitarian corridor.
Internationally, Italian female personnel find particular employment in the positions of Staff Officers and Military Observers within UN-led missions. In naval surveillance in the southern area of the Alliance, the female presence affects the crews of ships engaged in the for about 8 percent, with no limitation of employment; in the national aeronaval device in the Gulf of Guinea by 10 percent. In adherence to Resolution 1325 (2000) on 'Women, Peace and Security,' which embraces a gender perspective in conflict resolution for lasting peace, 42 female units were deployed in 2020 in the Unifil mission in Lebanon; 7 in the bilateral Lebanese Security Forces training mission; 21 in the Resolute support mission in Afghanistan; 7 in Iraq in the international coalition to counter the Daesh terrorist threat; 17 in the bilateral assistance and support mission in Libya; 7 in the Minusma mission in Mali; 7 in the NATO Joint Enterprise mission in the Balkans; 7 in Latvia (NATO); 2 in the Unficyp mission; 2 in Djibouti; and 2 in NATO Air Policing.
The only case of gender-differentiated deployment is the Female Engagement Teams (FETs), nuclei that specialize in interacting with the local female population of territories in order to increase acceptance of military personnel and create an optimal cooperative environment for achieving mission objectives.
The gradual admission of women into the various military roles started a process of improving an organization designed and nurtured exclusively by male personnel. Much has been accomplished in these first two decades, bringing about transformations at the logistical and organizational levels, placing women soldiers on an equal footing with men, and giving proper attention to specific needs such as protection for pregnancy and maternity. These are but the first steps toward the total equalization of women and men in arms who equally serve the state every day, ensuring peace and security.
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