2023-08-31 20:19:04
It was September 1988 when Patricia Ortega walked through the doors of the Zaragoza Military Academy, becoming the first woman to be admitted to the Armed Forces (FAS). She wasn’t the only one. Her name topped the list of “pioneers,” as the first 27 women who entered different military academies in the country are colloquially known and paved the way for the nearly 16,000 who are currently in the ranks of the Army.
A Royal Decree published months before, specifically on February 23, allowed women to join certain Army corps and ranks under the same conditions of access and promotion as men. In this way, the institution marked a turning point, breaking many barriers and betting on modernization.
It was a giant step. The Spanish women were able to apply for the first time to the places offered by the Common Corps of the FAS, reserved for graduates of Law, Engineering, Music or studies in the health field. The first call was attended by 292 graduates, surpassing it by the 27 women who will go down in history as “the pioneers”. They paved the way for the normalization of women in the military.
However, it took 11 years for Defense to bet on an egalitarian model. In 1999, the principle of equality “with all its consequences” was regulated, managing to offer exactly the same conditions to all members of the Army.
At that time, women represented less than 4% of military personnel in Spain. Currently, 35 years later, and after a long period of stagnation since 2006, the FAS have close to 15,864 women in their ranks, which represents 13%, according to data from the Military Observatory for equality between men and women. women in the FAS on December 31, 2022.
Two points above the NATO average
Of a total of 122,068 soldiers that Spain had in 2022, 106,204 were men and 15,864 women. The highest percentage of women is found in the so-called Common Bodies (Legal, Intervention, Health and Music), with a total of 1,144 women, 36.9% of the total number of troops. Next, the female presence is 14.23% in the Air Force (3,038 women), 13.80% in the Navy (2,926) and 11.46% in the Army (8,756).
These figures place Spain -with 13% of women in the Armed Forces- two points above the average for the armies of the NATO countries.
on the right track
There is still a long way to go, but these figures are encouraging and show that the military scene has evolved favorably for women. The “full incorporation” of Spanish women, to which the Defense Minister, Margarita Robles, always refers, is represented by the 15,862 soldiers distributed in different jobs and scales, among them, the first four general officers in history: the Division General Patricia Ortega (2019), Brigadier General Begoña Aramendía (2021), Brigadier General María Teresa Gordillo López (2023) and the recently promoted General of the Air Force and Space Loreto Guitiérrez Hurtado (2023). .
In addition to holding the honor of being the first woman to access the Armed Forces, Patricia Ortega became the first woman to reach the female generalship in Spain after the Government approved her promotion to brigadier general of the Corps of Polytechnic Engineers of the Army in July 2019.
Two years later, in August 2021, Colonel Begoña Aramendía Rodríguez of Austria, until that moment General Technical Deputy Secretary of Defense, followed in the wake of Ortega, becoming the second woman to reach the military leadership after 32 years of service.
The third to reach this rank was María Teresa Gordillo López, from the Military Intervention Corps, whose appointment was announced on July 14.
Finally, following the path marked out by her colleagues, Loreto Gutiérrez Hurtado, from the Corps of Engineers, became the fourth female general of the Spanish FAS and the first of the Air and Space Army this Tuesday, August 22.
Princess Leonor, the first woman of the Royal House with military training
Likewise, many other women hold positions such as generals, colonels, commanders, captains, lieutenants, second lieutenants, corporals… and reap important achievements within their military career. All of them are now joined by the recent admission of Princess Leonor to the General Military Academy of Zaragoza, which has become an important benchmark for other women who are considering enlisting and reinforces the increasingly relevant role of women in both armies and the army. The acting Defense Minister herself, Margarita Robles, considers that the arrival of the Princess of Asturias to “La General” is a “wake-up call to achieve a greater presence of young girls in the Army”.
Undoubtedly, the interest of the future Queen of Spain in her military training contributes to normalizing and promoting the female presence in the barracks. In the same way that she makes the right bet of her parents, her Kings, for another woman to be in charge of accompanying her in this first part of her formation. Lieutenant Margarita Pardo de Santayana, a true example of values and another pioneer in the FAS, has been appointed by the Casa del Rey as Leonor’s tutor. Santayana was the first to assume the leadership of a battalion of the Air Mobile Forces of the Army, she belongs to a family saga of prestigious soldiers and is a defender of the purest military values: honor, discipline and loyalty.
The eldest daughter of the King and Queen of Spain will receive intense military training over the next three years that will make her, first, the Bourbon lieutenant (or naval lieutenant), and later, when she succeeds her father as Queen of Spain, captain General or Supreme Command of the Armed Forces. Until that moment arrives, it is possible that another woman manages to reach the command of the armies or of the Defense General Staff, one of the most important positions just below the one that the Bourbon Cadet Lady will assume in the future.
Robles prepares the EU Defense Summit
The “Arms Factory” of the University of Castilla-La Mancha, in Toledo, will host the next 30 and 31 August the European Defense and Foreign Affairs Summit. Margarita Robles, Acting Defense Minister, visited the facilities this Friday to finalize the details of this informal meeting of ministers. This meeting will bring to the table issues such as the situation in Ukraine and the role of the European Union in the world and will be attended by numerous political personalities, including the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell.
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