Originally Posted by
TukwillaFlyboy
Well , we can change Aircraftsman to Aircraftswomen if it makes you happy but its not the point.
Banging on about this sort of stuff in a military whose sole purpose is the use of lethal force to maintain security and further vital national interests conveys the impression of a lack of seriousness.
Lord save us if there is a serious hot conflict.
I doubt that Putin or Xi Jinping take the threat of concerted military response from the West seriously at all.
Maybe just fold the whole thing up and accept that China is the future.
That's where you're wrong. If you were a major country (let's say the USA) facing a hypothetical massive shortage in a critical aviation role (let's say pilots) then the ability to recruit talent from all walks of life might be seen as vital.
If we in the UK were to have an underperforming recruitment organisation (hypothetically of course) can you not agree that the ability to recruit sufficient bums on seats of whatever gender or background might be vital to our ability to fulfil whatever role we choose for our defence organisation.
The military is an increasingly unattractive option in career terms and anything that we can do to broaden appeal gets my vote, notwithstanding the article that the OP pointed out which is probably (let's face it) a hatchet job by a rag.