Women in the military, what's it like? Male and Female views appreciated.
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Welcome to Army.ca, Anon14.
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There is much discussion about this here already. Please take the time to explore older threads on this Site and try the Search Function. This saves others' valuable time repeating earlier answers, saves DS the effort of merging threads of repetitive questions and answers, saves new people the effort of wading through them, and rewards you by providing answers to other questions before you even think of them.
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Anon14 said:
As already posted there is much discussion about the topics of women in the CF and sexual harassment in existing threads. However, since your interest is in two specific trades, keep in mind that they are probably two occupations of a handful in which it would be unusual to not have a high percentage of females. While the military is generally male-centric, just as in the civilian world some occupations attract more of one gender due to the nature of the employment. In the civilian world, females account for 98% of the equivalent to Dent Tech and only 84% of Med Lab Techs. While such ratios aren't found in the military, the percentage of women in military health services has "always" been greater than in any other segment of the military. This is probably more so today since the CF no longer professionally trains these two trades in-house but relies on direct entry or NCM SEP. If you are successful in joining in either of those trades you will, more than likely, receive the majority of your occupation training in a civilian environment where males will be the minority and your subsequent employment in a military setting will likely include other women.
MedCorps
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I will second Blackadder's comment, coming from the Health Service Group.
You will be in the majority as a female in either of these MOSIDs. In the larger Royal Canadian Medical Service picture you will be a sizable minority at 25-30%. In the Royal Canadian Dental Service you will be in the majority / minority by 5% either direction no matter where you are posted. There two Services / Corps are not reflective of the rest of the CAF. For instance, both the Sr MLab Tech and Corps CWO for the Dental Corps are female right now and this is not a abnormal or a surprise to anyone.
As a male, who has employed both MOSIDs I have never given much thought to if the NCO / Warrant serving under my command was male or female. I just care, especially in the case of the MLab Tech, that they are highly self-motivated and competent. Not particularly interested in their gender, just quality of their work.
MC
You will be in the majority as a female in either of these MOSIDs. In the larger Royal Canadian Medical Service picture you will be a sizable minority at 25-30%. In the Royal Canadian Dental Service you will be in the majority / minority by 5% either direction no matter where you are posted. There two Services / Corps are not reflective of the rest of the CAF. For instance, both the Sr MLab Tech and Corps CWO for the Dental Corps are female right now and this is not a abnormal or a surprise to anyone.
As a male, who has employed both MOSIDs I have never given much thought to if the NCO / Warrant serving under my command was male or female. I just care, especially in the case of the MLab Tech, that they are highly self-motivated and competent. Not particularly interested in their gender, just quality of their work.
MC
Pusser
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Anon14 said:
This kind of comment always concerns me. If you want to join solely for humanitarian missions and travel, then there are other organizations (Médecins sans frontières, OXFAM, Peace Corps, etc) that may be a better fit. Although the CAF can and does deliver humanitarian aid (and is very good at it), that is because we are a large, professional and disciplined organization with significant logistical assets, not because that is our raison d'etre. The main focus of our training and planning is to take the fight to an enemy, whomever that may be. Even members of med/dent occupations are trained in weapons handling and are expected to take up arms and fight if necessary (there are some occasions where waving one's Geneva Convention Card is largely ineffective). In fact the ONLY personnel in the CAF who are not trained in weapons and who are actually prohibited from carrying them, are chaplains. Although as a med/dent person, the chances of you actually having to shoot someone are slim, the possibility does nevertheless exist. You will almost certainly be "feeding the machine" though in that many of your patients will be taking the fight to the enemy and you will be enabling them to do it.
As for travel, yes there are opportunities for that, but keep in mind that we don't always go to the nicest places...
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