{"id":22749,"date":"2015-10-01T15:05:09","date_gmt":"2015-10-01T05:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=22749"},"modified":"2015-10-01T15:05:09","modified_gmt":"2015-10-01T05:05:09","slug":"australias-first-female-defence-minister-an-opportunity-for-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/australias-first-female-defence-minister-an-opportunity-for-difference\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s first female defence minister: an opportunity for difference"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Royal<\/a><\/figure>\n

As the drum roll fades following the swearing in of Australia\u2019s first ever female Defence Minister<\/a>, I\u2019m left wondering what we should now expect. While Senator Payne is the first ‘femmindef’ for Australia, she joins a long list<\/a> of international female Defence ministers who have gone before her. How will the Australian Department of Defence be shaped or be different with a female at the helm of such a male-dominated portfolio? Will Senator Marise Payne crack the tempered glass ceiling from above and start lowering down the career ladder for women in Defence? Can this be done in a way that might change the organisation and the defence of the nation in a positive way?<\/p>\n

Payne has asked that she be judged by her work<\/a>, rather than her gender, and I, like other feminists, would hope that\u2019s the case. However, it\u2019s her experience as a woman in Government, as a woman who knows the Defence landscape, and as a woman who proudly calls herself a feminist<\/a>, that brings an unprecedented vantage point unseen in the Department until now. It is this vantage point that will be a significant point of difference from her predecessors.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s difficult to be hypothetical about the difference a female minister, this female minister, may have on Defence over the coming year (or beyond), particularly in an organisation and portfolio prone to so much change\u2014or at least talk of it. Perhaps we can look to the last 12 months in Defence and ask ourselves if, or how, decisions and outcomes may have been different had she been in place. Would the male-dominated First Principles Review (FPR) team been left as just that, despite its sexist irony<\/a>? Would Defence have sent male \u2018champions of change\u2019 to women in leadership forums<\/a>, or would they have instead sent a woman in leadership to share insights into the lived experience?<\/p>\n

Would the news story around the biggest changes to Defence legislation in decades have been solely focused on superannuation, or rather the fact it creates the biggest structural change to enable part-time work<\/a> in Defence\u2019s history? It will have probably the most significant impact to women\u2019s ability to remain and thrive in the Defence workforce ever, yet sadly the accomplishment wasn\u2019t given the status it deserved. Opportunity lost, Defence PR.<\/p>\n

Andrew Davies\u2019 incoming brief to the Minister on The Strategist<\/em><\/a> had many valid points but was remiss of any mention of organisational culture, or the continued effort to alter long-entrenched hypermasculine behavioural standards accepted as the norm. Those behaviours still exist, in both sides of the house: the ADF and the APS. Perhaps this requires an incoming brief all on its own? Here are a few points I think are worth including:<\/p>\n