Kildare TD Calls For Increased Efforts To Improve Female Recruitment To Defence Forces

6% of new personnel admitted to the Army in 2024 were female

Kildare South Labour TD Mark Wall has called for increased efforts to improve female recruitment to the Defence Forces.

Deputy Wall made the call as new figures show that only 6% of new personnel admitted to the Defence Forces in 2024 were female.

Figures released through a parliamentary question showed that in 2024 only 40 personnel admitted to the Defence Forces were female compared to 668 male personnel admitted.

These figures represent only an 8% increase in female recruitment compared to a 68% increase in male recruitment between 2023 and 2024.

Deputy Wall said: “The figures released by the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence show an unambitious and failing strategy to drive up recruitment of women to our Defence Forces. We are constantly seeing recruitment campaigns and drives, but these clearly aren’t working when only 40 women were admitted in 2024.

“I urge the Tánaiste to develop a strategy to encourage more women into the Defence Forces, aiming for a target of 35% women participation, as contained in the Commission on the Defences Forces report. There are serious issues in terms of sexual assault, discrimination, harassment and bullying experienced by current female members of the Defence Forces, as brought forward by the Women of Honour group. These need to be urgently addressed and included in any strategy to increase the number of female recruits.” he concluded. 

When contacted by Kfm for a statement, the Defence Forces said: "The Defence Forces is reflective of the society we serve and has prioritised female recruitment and retention in a number of ways."

"Firstly, for recruitment, the Joint Recruitment Office (JRO) has been augmented with a female team who engage with female applicants and assist them through the induction and recruitment process. The JRO is underpinning recruitment with a strategy developed from research into the motivations and interests of women in the recruitment age bracket and the Defence Forces ensures women are represented throughout all advertising and through female specific advert campaigns such as outreach to all-girls schools." the statement read.

It continued: "Retention and the valuing of current members is key to ensuring they continue their career in service of the state. To support female retention, the Defence Forces are committed to identifying the possible barriers to the advancement of women within the organisation to ensure equity of opportunities. Policies such as work-life balance enhance retention and newer policies more conducive to family life are being explored, while ensuring to maintain the operational effectiveness of the Defence Forces."

The following table shows the number of personnel admitted to the Permanent Defence Force for each of the past five years, by gender: