Joining one of the Italian Armed Forces: a forbidden dream until the beginning of ...
A story of tenacity and determination that starts from the sit-ins and arrives at the Blue Force Offices, amidst incredulous looks, love, challenges and the normal life of a woman who reconciles home and work while carrying out a demanding profession. An example of extraordinary normality.
Animated by the desire to join the Armed Forces, Major Corbi pursued his battle at an institutional level in the 1990s. She wrote to the Defence Staff and the Ministry to find out the procedure to be followed to become a soldier, receiving - Major Corbi recalls in several interviews - cordial but negative replies due to the absence of a law allowing women to enlist.
'In 1992, the Army General Staff,' he explains, 'at the behest of Defence Minister Salvo Andò, promoted the Woman Soldier Experiment and about 30 girls were summoned to participate. I was among them. In 1995, I then decided, together with other 'veterans of that experiment', to found the National Association of Aspiring Women Soldiers (the Anados) to urge the political forces to promote a law that would allow women to be enlisted'.
After endless sit-ins, Law 380 'began to take shape in the chambers of Parliament and once it was passed, it disrupted the customs of the past'. Thanks to her active involvement in the movement, Debora Corbi was appointed as an Air Force Officer, initially on an honorary basis, and then on 12 June 2000, she was officially enrolled in the Armed Forces.
Also in 2000, she was appointed at the suggestion of the Minister of Defence as a member of the Advisory Committee of the Chief of Defence Staff and the Commander General of the Guardia di Finanza for the inclusion of women in the Armed Forces (2000/2008).
Today, she is working at the General Office of the Chief of Staff of the Air Force in the Public Information sector, as social media manager, managing the social channels of the Blue Force together with a team of eight people including six women. "I manage the social pages of the Armed Force with passion," she explains, "and it is an exciting job. We manage to tell citizens what we do every day for the good of the country: how we defend the skies, health transport, and I see that there is a lot of appreciation".
Women in the armed forces are a well-established reality, but it is only right to remember how many battles and how much strength it took to achieve this. In 2014, she recounted the extraordinary rise of women in uniform in the book 'Ufficiale e gentildonna. Chronicle of a revolution in the Italian Armed Forces'.
Today, we can say,' he explains on the occasion of the centenary of the Air Force, 'that the process of insertion and integration of what had been described as an epoch-making turning point is now complete. There were no restrictions on recruitment, employment or career. [...] Today, our country can employ its human resources, both male and female, without any gender distinction. Women enlisted in the Armed Forces have shown great commitment, ability and motivation.'.
Major Corbi is married to an Air Force pilot and is mother of a baby Edoardo. Reconciling family and professional life is a challenge,' she says, 'that can only be overcome through excellent planning and good organisation.
To help the family organisation of uniformed couples, the Consolidation Act on maternity and paternity, the Legislative Decree, coordinated text of 26 March 2001 number 151 and various directives supporting military mothers or military couples (e.g. on working hours to allow them to reconcile work with the management of children, school, kindergarten and more).
On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Law 380/1999, which allowed women to join the Armed Forces, she and Colonel Alessandro Cornacchini signed the book 'Hearts on Takeoff'. 'I was one of the first women enlisted,' she recounts on the occasion of the volume's release, 'and that is why they call me the zero woman! My professional life was wonderful, so much so that I found my husband. Finding out in the environment that military couples are on the rise, I decided to tell the twenty years of this entry in a more original way, highlighting how women have changed the military world'.
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