Women and the Armed Forces

La Tercera, Wednesday, January 30, 2019

The Ministry of Defense is engaged in several modernization efforts, including those aimed at ensuring the incorporation of women into the Armed Forces. This is perhaps the most important initiative and will have the greatest impact on the modernization of defense institutions. The incorporation has been carried out cautiously, with each institution progressing as it adapts its materials, processes, and procedures. Protocols are also being developed to provide tools for both women and men to handle harassment situations and, perhaps more importantly, to ensure that the internal cultures of the armed institutions allow for the full development of women in the Armed Forces. This represents the most significant change in the 200-year history of our Armed Forces. We have come from a situation where we were only capturing 50% of the potential of Chileans willing to serve in the defense of Chile. Incorporating women, who represent the other 50%, should not be neutral in terms of talent, vocation, and, even more importantly, emotional intelligence. Where we currently fall short is that, for now, the entry of women into the training schools represents less than 50% of the available slots. To capture 100% of the potential, we should not have gender quotas, and conditions should be equal from the moment of entry.