EQUALITY:THE DEPARTMENT of Defence believed women could become part of the Defence Forces, but should be confined to a non-combatant role and have their own corps, according to State papers released by the National Archives.
The Defence (Amendment) Act 1979 allowed women to join the Defence Forces for the first time and was passed by the Oireachtas in November 1979.
Papers from the Department of the Taoiseach show a memo to government, dated June 7th, 1979, from the office of then minister for defence Bobby Molloy, indicated a women’s corps should be established.
“Women joining the forces would be entering a predominantly male environment and their initial grouping together in a corps of their own would be of undoubted assistance in building up morale, imparting a sense of purpose and identity and instilling an esprit de corps, particularly in the impressionable early stages of their military careers,” the memo said.
It said corps members would be “non-combatant” and would “not be employed on duties of a security or operational nature under arms”. Women were to be trained in the use of “small arms”.
Suggested occupations that would be suitable for women included clerks, grooms, librarians, telegraphists, air traffic controllers, drivers, printers, radio operators, recorders and cine-projectionists. Some 230 appointments in those areas were earmarked for women and were to be filled on a gradual basis.
Some 39 “mature” women were to be appointed as officers in the ranks of lieutenant and captain. Woman would also be free to leave the Defence Forces on marriage or for family reasons including pregnancy.
The memo also noted there was no suitable accommodation available at any military location and this was the “greatest inhibiting factor to the pace of progress”.
It said the building of a billet block for women at the Curragh had been approved.
The file also contained recommendations made in a report by the Committee on the Establishment of a Women’s Service Corps. Not all of its recommendations were taken on board by the government.
The report recommended that women should not be employed on night duty and, if subject to court martial, should not be held in detention.
The function of the women’s corps should be “one of service for other units of the Defence Forces”, the report said. And the services of women officers and enlisted personnel should be terminated on pregnancy.
“Rates of pay of members of the corps should be less than those of men,” the report said.
The first female officer cadets were sworn in to the Defence Forces in March 1980 and the first 40 recruits began training at the Curragh in 1981. The women’s corps was never created and there are now 565 women in the Defence Forces, just over 5 per cent of its members.
