Army recruitment violates gender equality, says policy group

THE procedure to recruit 3,000 contract soldiers for the National Guard which began on Friday illegally excludes women, the Gender Equality Observatory said.

In a statement, the observatory said the discrimination “blatantly violates the law on equal treatment of men and women in employment and professional training” which seeks to give equal treatment to both genders for finding work and their conditions of employment.

The observatory said the government, yet again, proved that gender equality issues “are very low in political priorities” and the fact that the army was held up by men doesn’t give them a priori rights.

Rather, it highlights the need for the state to change such conditions and implement measures so that women do not feel excluded from the army.

According to the observatory, occupational segregation is at 28 per cent. This translates to wage and pension gaps between men and women that reach 35 per cent, it added.

Last month, the Cabinet approved the recruitment of 3,000 professional soldiers as part of the National Guard restructuring plan, which also entails a reduction in mandatory service for conscripts from 24 to 14 months.

Applications can be submitted online or to defence ministry recruitment offices in all towns. Information can obtained from the special phone line 1430.

The deadline for applications is June 24.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.