(Reuters)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SYDNEY, April 13 – Australia on Monday said a woman would lead its army for the first time in history, as part of a reshuffle of \u200bthe country’s defence force leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lieutenant General Susan Coyle, the current chief \u200cof joint capabilities, will become chief of army in July, the government said in a statement. She will replace Lieutenant General Simon Stuart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Coyle’s appointment comes as Australia’s military seeks to \u200bboost the number of female “From \u2060July, we will have the first ever female chief of army \u200bin the Australian Army’s 125-year history,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a \u200bstatement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Defence Minister Richard Marles called Coyle’s appointment a “deeply historic moment.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“As Susan said to me, you cannot be what you cannot see,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Susan’s achievement will be deeply significant \u200bto women who are serving in the Australian Defence Force today and \u200bwomen who are thinking about serving in the Australian Defence Force in the future.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Coyle, \u200c55, \u2060enlisted in the military in 1987 and has held a number of senior command roles. She will be the first woman to lead any service branch of the military, Marles said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Women currently make up around 21% of \u200bthe Australian Defence \u200bForce (ADF) and 18.5% \u2060of senior leadership roles. The ADF has set a target of 25% of overall participation for women by 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last October, \u200ba class action lawsuit was filed against the ADF alleging \u200bit failed \u2060to protect thousands of female officers from systematic sexual assault, harassment and discrimination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The government on Monday also appointed Vice Admiral Mark Hammond, the current chief \u2060of \u200bthe navy, as the head of the ADF, succeeding \u200bAdmiral David Johnston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The current deputy chief of navy, Rear Admiral Matthew Buckley, will replace Hammond as \u200bhead of the branch.officers in its ranks. It \u200bfaces a wave of allegations of systematic sexual harassment and discrimination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(Reuters) SYDNEY, April 13 – Australia on Monday said a woman would lead its army for the first time in history, as part of a reshuffle of \u200bthe country’s defence force leadership. Lieutenant General Susan Coyle, the current chief \u200cof joint capabilities, will become chief of army in July, the government said in a statement. She will replace Lieutenant General Simon Stuart. Coyle’s appointment comes as Australia’s military seeks to \u200bboost the number of female “From \u2060July, we will have the first ever female chief of army \u200bin the Australian Army’s 125-year history,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56535,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56532"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56534,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56532\/revisions\/56534"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/56535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}