Be a bloke: the other war for women soldiers
`A strang sight greeted investigators when they arrived at HMAS Creswell naval base during their inquiry into harassment in the defence force.
Women trainees on the sports field were wearing the same singlets as the men, complete with gaping arm holes. This posed awkward problems as the women tried to train and cover their breasts at the same time.
In the base’s toilet block – which commanders insisted on being unisex, because that is how life on a ship works – only one cubicle had a sanitary disposal unit.
The investigators came away believing the Australian Defence Force had – in the words of one investigator, the former Public Service Commissioner Andrew Podger – “some way to go on the appreciation of women”.’
