Presence of women increasing in Balkan militaries

BELGRADE - One in eleven members of the Serbian Armed Forces are women, shows a study on the position of women in the armed forces in the Western Balkans, whose results were presented at the Dom Vojske Srbije on Tuesday.

In 2010, Serbia adopted a national action plan for implementing UN Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, Zoran Djordjevic, state secretary at the Ministry of Defence, said at the unveiling of the study.

Serbia thus joined the group of countries implementing UN and EU standards and recommendations regarding gender equality, Djordjevic said.

An analysis of data indicates that the presence of women in the Serbian security sector has greatly increased since the start of the implementation of the action plan, rising from 26 percent in 2010 to 32.51 percent in 2013.

The study shows that the defence ministries of Western Balkan states have been working actively for the past several years on making the military profession attractive to women.

As a result, women account for 1.5 to 4.89 percent of the air and anti-aircraft defence forces in Western Balkan states, as well as for 3.85 to 4.93 percent of the land forces, and only 0.69 percent of the navy.

Women mostly occupy the lowest-ranking positions in the hierarchy, since military education has only recently become available to women.

Statistical figures show that the percentage of women is the highest in other services of armed forces - civilian military service, medical and administrative staff, reserve and the military police.

Women account for 9.81 to 41.24 percent of that category, the study said.

The study was conducted with support from the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the defence...

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