A look at the changing tide of the military's workforce and the women creating waves

Wednesday, 6 January 2021

It's more common than ever to see a woman picking up a belt sander, a fire hose or handpiece. Stuff reporter Georgia Forrester chats to wāhine who are smashing stereotypes in traditionally male-dominated industries.

Melissa Ross​ knows what it's like to be a woman standing out in a sea of men.

Ross (Ngāpuhi) is the deputy chief of the navy. In 2019, she became the first woman to achieve the rank of commodore in the Royal New Zealand Navy's history, and the first woman to become second-in command.

She grew up in Kawerau in the Bay of Plenty. Her parents worked at the Tasman Pulp and Paper Mill, as it was called back then, and after school, she spent her holidays working there as tradesman’s assistant.

It was a role where she got to carry around a tool bag, and drive a tractor that was sometimes loaded up with heavy equipment on the back. She was the only woman in her team at the time, saying that although there were women working in heavy industries like the mill's, often they were found in office administration or cleric roles.

**READ MORE:

* New Plymouth teenager excited by military career prospects after joining Navy

* Men could learn some lessons on investing from women

* Gender attitudes: Why can't girls study physics and boys play with dolls?

* One moko is never enough: Double moko on TVNZ's midday news

**

Ross studied engineering in Christchurch and decided to join the navy after a friend suggested the idea. Her brother was in the navy at the time, and her parents had served in the army before she was born.

At the age of 20, she joined the RNZN as a marine engineer in 1993. It was a time when women had only recently been allowed to go to sea, however they still weren't in combat roles.

In 1994, the navy began allowing women to serve on frigates – a type of warship – for the first time. Ross was among the first few groups of women to be allowed to go to sea and serve on frigates.

At that time, a lot of the industries were structured for men, she says. At the paper mill for example, it was common for the bathrooms to have urinals, and it was the same sort of scenario initially on the boats.

“The ships were built for men,” she says.

She recalls one particular time when there were roughly about 20 women aboard a ship, and all of the women were put together in the same sleeping quarters regardless of their rank. Ross laughs when thinking back to how the women had to share just two bathrooms, and juggle queues for the showers.

Whereas the men had their own sections of the boat and sleeping areas structured by their ranks, so junior ratings in one area and officers in another.

“It was a challenge but it also became a shared experience… it was tough to get through some of those things but we all did it together, and so we came out the other end as being quite a strong group having shared that experience together,” she says.

She also recalls the challenges of the environment on the steamships, which were hot and noisy and not easy to work in. But a rewarding part of that was the certificates she received for doing her job.

“Once you got those tickets actually, it was quite rewarding to know that you had been able to get through all of that and be able to still do what everyone else had done.

“There would be very few women in New Zealand who would have got a steam boiler ticket,” she says.

When Ross first joined the navy, she says there was a perception around trying to fit in and be “one of the boys” and do what they did. But over time she got to a stage where she felt frustrated because she wasn't a man, and couldn't do some things that men could. It was at that point she questioned whether she was the right person for the job.

“But I think the next stage then became the realisation that the way I was doing things may not be the same as a man but actually added value in itself. Actually doing it differently added value rather than trying to do it the same,” she says.

She says these days, they don't want women going through that cycle. “I think these are kind of the lessons to learn, that many people I guess in the 90s would have gone through when you’re breaking into an industry which is male-dominated.”

Ross has achieved a lot throughout her career in the navy, including many overseas deployments and two masters degrees. She also became a mother of two. When it comes to family, she says she’s lucky because she’s had a lot of family and community support.

When she was promoted to commodore, she asked for the ceremony to take place at Te Taua Moana Marae at Devonport's Naval Base. While this was important to her and her whānau, she says it also visually made a statement by showing that these senior types of positions is “something that Māori can also strive to do”.

She encourages Māori and Pasifika people to look for the opportunities that are there and step outside of your comfort zone.

As for women in the military, she says they've come a long way since the 90s, but there's still progress to make. “There’s always more to do to ensure we’ve got that environment where women can work and thrive rather than work and survive like I did. It’s now an environment where you can come in and you can thrive.”

They’ve been working hard to shift those perceptions around masculinity in the military, and each branch has set its own gender employment goals. The navy has set a gender target of increasing the female workforce to 30 per cent by 2025 – lifting it by 1 per cent each year.

Ross says it's not just about encouraging women to join the workforce, but actually also focusing on the roles within the navy that have traditionally been held by men, such as combat roles, engineering, and diving. In comparison, areas within the navy where they’ve traditionally seen higher numbers of women are logistics, medical and still the clerical type roles, she says.

According to the Minister of Defence Peeni Henare​, the air force and army have also set similar gender targets, aiming for 25 per cent and 17.1 per cent female workforces respectively.

The number of successful female recruits has increased by more than 13 per cent in the past eight years, with women now making up about 24 per cent of all recruits.

Women also now represent 28 per cent of total applications, up from 11 per cent in 2012, Henare says.

Minister for Women Jan Tinetti​ says the number of women in the NZDF workforce has increased to 24 per cent, up 16 per cent in 2016. She also says the organisation has initiatives in place to address gender equality – such as working on its gender pay gap, and normalising flexible work.

“We are making progress – but there’s certainly work to do to improve the gender diversity in our traditionally male-dominated workforces.”