What percentage of infanteers are women, and how does this compare to other trades in the army?
Women make up 50% of the Canadian population, 15% of CF personnel, 6.7% of PRes combat arms personnel, and 1.9% of reg force combat arms personnel.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/cdnmilitary/women-cdnmilitary.html
No quota, just my opinion.
While air force, LGen Steve Lucas also noted that the CF "falls short when it comes to recruiting women..." (http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2006/06/30/1662478-cp.html). I'm sure this applies to the infantry as well.
The auditor general also recognizes problems with the number of females being recruited. See http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/domino/other.nsf/html/00nd_e.html, 2006 Status Report Chapter 2, pp 55-56.
While these do not specifically focus on the infantry, it shows a general problem of recruiting females. Their representation in the combat arms is well below the CF average. Anything to help deal with this should be welcomed.
Michael Dorosh said:
I think any woman too stupid to realize that "infantryman" was a trade open to her was probably not cut out for the CF to begin with. Given the level of challenge in becoming an infantryman, why pander to the casually interested?
Maybe not too stupid to realize that infantry is open to females, but maybe turned off by the fact that it is so dominated by males that even the term for a soldier in the infantry reflects that fact. And what about first impressions? Just because someone doesn't know that females can join the infantry doesn't make them "stupid." Maybe they'll see a sign recruiting "infanteers" and then investigate it, and be less likely to if it said "infantrymen."