Published 30 September 2019

The Women in Defence Charter was launched by the Minister for Defence Procurement, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, at DSEI in London.

The Charter, which has been co-founded by DE&S Director of Commercial Improvement, Morag Stuart, and Women in Defence UK founder, Angela Owen, will encourage individual industries

to work together to set targets that achieve the common goal of increasing the number of women in defence.

Focusing on making the defence sector an attractive industry to work in for women, the Charter looks to focus on retaining and supporting women into senior management positions where appropriate.

The key outcomes of the Charter will be in measuring the results at all levels across organisations, but especially at the most senior executive and non-executive levels.

Morag Stuart, who is also a DE&S Gender Champion said: “I rarely sit in a room with a senior woman present and coming from my role as DE&S Gender Champion, this is something I want to change.

“Angela and I have collaborated on setting up the Women in Defence Charter that will be fundamental to helping raise the profile of supporting more women to get into senior roles in defence. I’m proud to be a part of making this initiative happen and look forward to how it will improve the way we support women in defence.”

This initiative has come from DE&S having been selected as one of the Government Equalities Office’s five pilots to address the gender pay gap and look at some of the interventions that might be made to improve it. Alongside the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Government Equalities Office who have all welcomed the initiative.

The Charter was signed by DE&S CEO Sir Simon Bollom during DSEI.

Sir Simon said: “DE&S is committed to having a diverse work force so I was delighted to sign the Women in Defence Charter as our organisation continues to move towards its goal of employing great people, delivering great programmes in a great place to work.”

The Charter is following in the footsteps of other Charters such as the Women in Aviation and Aerospace Charter and the Women in Finance Charter.

Women in Defence UK founder, Angela Owen, who has been working alongside Morag Stuart at DE&S, said; “The Charter is about creating an environment that women want to join, where they feel they can thrive and where they want to stay. An environment that is better for women but better for men too. An environment of opportunity for all, that ultimately improves the output of UK defence.”