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Improving gender balance in defence

About the Charter

The Women in Defence Charter was launched to improve gender balance in the defence enterprise, both public sector and private sector.

It is a pledge to work together to build a more balanced enterprise. Signatories are committing to be the very best at driving inclusion and diversity within their organisations and providing opportunities for women to succeed at all levels.

Currently the sector breakdown of women in roles is:

24%

Proportion of UK Defence Sector Jobs Held by Women

Insight and Data 2023

12%

Proportion of Women in the UK Armed Forces

Insight and Data 2023

41%

Proportion of Women in the MOD Civil Service

Insight and Data 2023

29%

Proportion of Women in the UK Defence Industry

Insight and Data 2023

Our ambition is to achieve 30% female representation at all levels across the defence enterprise by 2030.

The Commitments

When an organisation signs the Charter, they pledge to deliver 
four commitments.

Senior Executive

They commit to have one member of their senior executive team who is responsible and accountable for gender inclusion

Internal targets

They commit to setting internal targets, where appropriate, for gender diversity in their senior management

Publish annually

They commit to publishing progress annually against any targets in reports on the Women in Defence Charter website

Link pay or objectives to diversity

They commit to having an intention to ensure the pay or the objectives of the senior executive team are linked to delivery of any internal targets on gender inclusion and diversity

The signatories

  • AACE
  • Accenture
  • ADS
  • Airbus
  • Allan Webb Ltd
  • Aquila
  • Arcadis
  • Armed forces covenant
  • Ascent Flight Training 
  • Atkins
  • Atlas elektronic UK
  • AWE
  • Babcock
  • BAE Systems
  • BMT
  • Boeing UK
  • Boyden
  • British Army
  • Capgemini
  • Cervus Defence Ltd
  • Civil Service (not agencies)
  • Cohort PLC
  • Costain
  • Cranfield University
  • D Group
  • Dassult
  • DE&S
  • DSTL
  • Empyrea Consulting 
  • Envitia
  • Eviden
  • Ferranti Tech
  • Forces Employment Charity
  • Fujitsu
  • General Dynamics
  • GKN Aerospace
  • Harquebus
  • Helsing Limited
  • Impellam
  • Improbable
  • Jacobs
  • JJ Churchill
  • KBR
  • L3 Harris
  • Leidos
  • Leonardo
  • Lockheed Martin UK
  • Manpower Group
  • Marshall Aerospace and Defence
  • Matchtech
  • MBDA UK
  • Mott MacDonald
  • MRL Public Sector Consultants
  • Northrop Grumman
  • Occam Group
  • Oxley Group
  • PA Consulting
  • Pearson Engineering
  • Ploughshare Innovations Ltd
  • Prospect
  • PWC
  • QA
  • QinetiQ
  • Raytheon UK
  • RDUK Rheinmetall UK
  • Renaissance Strategic Advisors
  • Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land
  • RMMV UK Rheinmetall MAN Military Vechiles UK
  • Rowden Tech
  • Royal AirForce
  • Royal Navy
  • Rolls Royce
  • SAAB UK
  • Safran
  • Scientific Management International Ltd
  • Serco
  • Sharing Growth
  • Space Command
  • Strategic Command
  • Thales UK
  • TMD Technologies
  • Turner & Townsend
  • Ultra
  • UK Airtanker
  • Vivo
  • Vysiion
  • Walker Precision Engineering
  • Whitetree