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:
25%
13%
Proportion of Women in the UK Armed Forces
43%
29%
Proportion of Women in the UK Defence Industry
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 five commitments.
Senior Executive
They commit to having an empowered member of the senior executive team who is responsible for signing the Charter
Internal targets
They commit to setting internal targets, where appropriate, for gender diversity in all levels of the organisation and in all functional areas
Publish annually
They commit to providing data annually to the Women in Defence UK Charter for anonymised use in the Women in Defence UK Charter Annual Report
Link pay or objectives to diversity
They commit to having an intention to ensure the pay or the objectives of a senior executive are linked to delivery of any internal targets on gender inclusion and diversity
Progression at Every Level
They commit to supporting the progression of women into senior roles in the defence sector by focusing on the executive pipeline and the mid and lower-tier levels across the full spectrum of roles within the organisation
The signatories
- AACE
- Accenture
- ADS
- Airbus
- AirTanker
- Allan Webb Ltd
- Amentum
- Aquila
- Arcadis
- Armed forces covenant
- Arondite
- Ascent Flight Training
- Atkins
- Atlas elektronic UK
- AWE
- Babcock
- BAE Systems
- BMT
- Boeing UK
- Boyden
- British Army
- BT
- Capgemini
- Capita
- Cervus Defence Ltd
- Chemring
- Civil Service (not agencies)
- CJ Cairns Associates
- Cohort PLC
- Costain
- Cranfield University
- D Group
- Dassult
- DE&S
- Defence Media
- DSTL
- Empyrea Consulting
- Envitia
- Eviden
- FAUN Trackway Limited
- Ferranti Tech
- Forces Employment Charity
- Frielle
- Fujitsu
- GE Vernova
- General Dynamics
- Geometric Manufacturing Ltd
- GKN Aerospace
- Harquebus
- Helsing Limited
- Hydro Group Ltd
- Impellam
- Improbable
- JJ Churchill
- KBR
- L3 Harris
- Leidos
- Leonardo
- Lockheed Martin UK
- Lockett Solutions
- Mace
- Manpower Group
- Marshall Aerospace and Defence
- Matchtech
- MBDA UK
- Mott MacDonald
- MRL Public Sector Consultants
- Northrop Grumman
- Occam Group
- OBC RDSC
- Orbis
- Oxley Group
- PA Consulting
- Pearson Engineering
- Plexal
- 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
- Sirius Analysis
- Skyral
- Space Command
- Stellar Solutions
- Strategic Command
- Submarine Delivery Agency
- SYOS
- Thales UK
- TMD Technologies
- Turner & Townsend
- TWI
- UKDSC
- Ultra
- Vivo
- Vysiion
- Walker Precision Engineering
- Whitetree
- WSP