‘Laddish culture’ is driving out talented female and minority ethnic personnel from the Armed Forces, Britain’s most senior military officer has warned today.
General Sir Nick Carter, the Chief of the Defence Staff, said such culture needed stamping out and it was ‘simply unacceptable’ that they had so far failed to ‘move the dial’ on the issue.
The comments come after a review last year concluded that the forces were led by a ‘pack of middle-aged white men’ resulting in unacceptable levels of bullying, sexism and racist behaviour.
But Gen Carter has today promised a series of ‘really tough commitments’ to deliver change within the Armed Forces.
Giving evidence to the Commons Defence Committee he said: ‘The thing that I think is really worrying particularly is the culture
General Sir Nick Carter (pictured right), the Chief of the Defence Staff, said such culture needed stamping out and it was ‘simply unacceptable’ that they had so far failed to ‘move the dial’ on the issue
‘What I am looking for is people being judged on their moral courage and their ability to look after the people they have the privilege to command and to lead.
‘If they do that I think we have got a much better chance of stamping out the laddish and, often much worse than that, thoroughly unacceptable behaviour that means that we undoubtedly push some of the really talented female, but also black, Asian and minority ethnic people that we have in the armed forces, out after only a few years.
‘It is simply unacceptable that we are not moving the dial on this thing.’
The report, by Air Marshal Michael Wigston, was commissioned after a 17-year-old female soldier was allegedly sexually assaulted by six male personnel.
Gen Carter, who held a three-hour meeting with the service chiefs earlier on Tuesday, said he expected to publish their new commitments to tackling the issue by the autumn
The woman is understood to have told bosses she woke to find the men, one a Staff Sergeant, standing over her.
Six Army sports club members were charged under military police laws last year over the incident, which led then Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson to launch a review into bullying and harassment throughout the Forces.
Gen Carter, who held a three-hour meeting with the service chiefs earlier on Tuesday, said he expected to publish their new commitments to tackling the issues by the autumn.
Among the changes needed, he said, was a complete overhaul of the service complaints system.
Gen Carter said he hoped the new system would mean that people who had the ‘moral courage’ to make a complaint could be confident it would dealt with effectively.
‘It is simply unacceptable at the moment that this complaints system is first of all far too slow to deliver an outcome and secondly by the time it does deliver an outcome it is often irrelevant in terms of the censure that comes with that outcome,’ he said.
At the same time he said there needed to be ‘positive action’ to reform the forces’ career structure so that women who took time out to have family were not ‘massively disadvantaged’.
‘It is simply unacceptable that in the top 150 or so of top general officers across the three services we only have three women.
‘That doesn’t provide enough role models,’ he said.
‘We have a career structure that is still designed predominantly for men.
‘The reality is that we have to change the career structure so that those with genuine long-term potential are able to satisfy their family needs as well as going on to realise their military potential.’
It comes after figures released this year showed the Army is struggling to recruit women because they don’t think they are fit enough to make the grade.
While reality TV documentaries and the drama series Our Girl have attracted teenagers into wanting to become soldiers, many young women pull out during the application stage over fitness doubts, the Army’s recruiting chief said in February.
Figures the number of people in the Army having dwindled to 73,000 troops despite a target of 82,000 – though the Army has achieved its recent goal of recruiting 9,400 soldiers this year. Pictured: The latest recruitment advert for the Army
In January it was revealed the Army’s controversial 2019 ‘Snowflakes’ campaign which targeted ‘snowflakes, selfie addicts, class clowns and millennials’, was the most successful in a decade
Figures the number of people in the Army having dwindled to 73,000 troops despite a target of 82,000 – though the Army has achieved its recent goal of recruiting 9,400 soldiers this year.
Cath Possamai, chief executive of the British Army Recruiting Group, said 20 per cent of applicants were female but that dropped to 10 per cent at the training stage.
She said: ‘Women tend to be almost too honest.
‘They are much more likely to perceive they are physically not fit enough and that’s a big barrier to joining.’
In October last year, Army chiefs issued a last-minute plea for white female soldiers to appear in a recruitment campaign after suggestions it had focused ‘too hard’ on finding ethnic minority troops for the TV adverts.
Filming of the £1million 2020 Army Belonging campaign took place in Morocco in October on a sandy set intended to recreate the battlefields of Afghanistan.
But just days before cameras were due to roll, top brass realised they had not recruited enough white women to take part – while all the roles for troops from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds were filled.
In January it was revealed the Army’s controversial 2019 ‘Snowflakes’ campaign which targeted ‘snowflakes, selfie addicts, class clowns and millennials’, was the most successful in a decade.
Following the £1.5million campaign, aimed at overturning negative stereotypes, 90,000 people applied to join the Army.