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Breaking glass ceilings
By Graham Davis
Volume 50, No. 18, October 04, 2007 |
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BREAKFAST GUESTS: From left, the uniformed head of Defence Force Recruiting/ Brisbane, LCDR Janine Narbutas; CMDR Jenny Daetz, second left; Army CAPT Stephen Button, Defence Jobs WNL player Michelle Brogan, LTCOL Kath Stewart and FLTLT Jodie Mason.
Photo: Karen McPaul |
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The first woman to command a Royal Australian Navy ship, CMDR Jenny Daetz (former CO of HMAS Shepparton), has some good news for women seeking career advancement in the ADF.
They can go far.
“I say there were two glass ceilings in Defence,” she said.
“The bottom was a thick sheet of armoured glass and the upper layer is a delicate sheet of segmented stained glass. The bottom layer has, in my opinion, been well and truly smashed with no more rebounds off the armoured glass.
“As for the upper layer, although some segments are gone, those that remain will be removed in time.
“Just as Australia has not had a female prime minister yet, nor have we had a female service chief, yet,” CMDR Daetz, now the commanding officer of Australia’s vital north-eastern naval base, HMAS Cairns, said.
CMDR Daetz’s views on the “glass ceilings” formed the basis of her keynote address to more than 190 people who attended a “Women in Defence” breakfast in Toowoomba.
The breakfast was organised by Helen Nolan and her team from Defence Recruiting/ Brisbane.
Among those in attendance were 30 Service personnel, 30 educators, 20 community members, 30 cadets and 70 students who are hopefully candidates for careers in the ADF.
The aim of the function was to profile the diverse range of careers for women in the ADF in line with one of the strategic objectives of the ADF — to encourage more women to consider the ADF as a career choice.
CMDR Daetz, who is the senior naval officer for some 900 ADF personnel, told the gathering of the diversity of roles that were available to women in Defence by listing the achievements of the uniformed people in the room.
She gave a few examples from her career including deployment to Antarctica.
CMDR Daetz was just one of a list of speakers who addressed the gathering. The breakfast was supported by a demonstration from RAAF military dog handlers and musical interludes by an Army band brass quintet. |
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