Gender gap
Military Commissioner Högel complains about too few women in the Bundeswehr
Alone among men: A woman commands soldiers from the Bundeswehr guard battalion in front of Bellevue Palace.
© dpa
There is a lack of women in the Bundeswehr, criticizes the Commissioner for the Armed Forces, Eva Högel. The Ministry of Defense claims to have recorded at least a small increase.
The Bundestag’s military commissioner, Eva Högl (SPD), has a shortage Women in the Bundeswehr criticized. “It can’t continue like this,” the SPD politician told the newspapers of the “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND)”. The proportion of women in the Bundeswehr is currently just over 13 percent. If you take medical care out of the equation, it is less than ten percent.
Högel goes even further. The Bundeswehr has been missing its self-imposed goals “for years.” “The law stipulates a quota of 20 percent,” she said. This came into force with the new Equal Opportunities Act for Soldiers in January 2024. The military commissioner further emphasized that there are too few women in the area and in leadership positions. “The increase in the proportion of women has only been in the per mille range for years.”
Women in leadership positions in the Bundeswehr should become the norm
Högel demands that women in leadership positions must become the norm in the coming years. To date, there are no female ranks for female soldiers. Högel also criticized sexual assaults and a lack of toilets and showers for female soldiers.
Since the armed forces were fully opened to women in 2001, the number of female soldiers has risen to around 24,000, according to the Federal Ministry of Defense. This corresponds to a share of around 13 percent. A further increase is becoming apparent.
However, at the request of “RND”, a spokeswoman for the authority also said that the quota of women in military leadership positions in the ministry itself is currently only around two percent. However, outside the Ministry of Defense, 16 percent of leadership positions are held by women. In the area of medical services it is even around 46 percent. In the coalition agreement, the current federal government has set itself the goal of “achieving equality between women and men by 2030,” as it says on the Federal Ministry of Defense website.
Fewer and fewer young women find the Bundeswehr an attractive employer
However, it is also true that fewer and fewer young women see the Bundeswehr as an attractive employer for young people. This is the conclusion reached by a representative population survey by the Center for Military History and Social Sciences of the Bundeswehr (ZMSBw), which was published in February. Accordingly, the proportion of young women who find the Bundeswehr to be an attractive employer for young people has roughly halved since 2018.
Since 2001, women in the Bundeswehr have had access to all military careers in addition to civilian ones. It was a long way to get there. The first female soldiers joined the Bundeswehr on October 13, 1975, five doctors in the medical service. Over time, female musicians also joined the Bundeswehr. But it would take another 25 years until comrades followed them into all other areas of the German armed forces.