One woman with a successful career in the Defence Forces is Lieut Georgina James who is in the Military Police Corps based in Dublin. Lieut James (28) said that the Army offered opportunities to women in all areas, including overseas postings.
"I don't feel there are any barriers for women in the Defence Forces. Everything is open to us, educational courses, weapons courses, promotional opportunities, overseas appointments," she said.
There were no restrictions to women working overseas, no matter where the Irish Defence Forces were operational, such as Afghanistan, Liberia, Kosovo. They could fill all the jobs from platoon commanders to being in charge of training centres, she said.
Lieut James has just returned from a six-month mission in Liberia where she was the military police officer in charge of a section of Irish and Swedish soldiers.
"I was in charge of policing the soldiers. Out of the 420 soldiers there, 18 were women," she said. She said she would most definitely recommend the job to young women.
"Women don't consider it as they think the Army is for men. But there are fantastic opportunities. I am active, I do something different every day and it is challenging."
Lieut James, from Cork, started in the Curragh on cadet training for 21 months, then joined an infantry unit in Dundalk. Following this, she went to Dublin where she trained soldiers for three years before joining the Military Police Corps and going to Liberia.
"In the four years since my training, I've had an extremely varied job," she said.
On sexual harassment or sexism in the Defence Forces, Lieut James said that she personally had never experienced anything like that.
"The Army is doing its very best to prevent such things. There are preventable measures and if anything does happen there are routes and procedures that can be taken," she said.