Today EUFOR celebrated International Women’s Day (IWD). IWD takes place on 8th March every year and has been celebrated globally for over 100 years.
This morning, to celebrate IWD 2023, COM EUFOR Maj Gen Habermayer hosted a reception with all female soldiers and civilian employees based in Camp Butmir. During the reception, COM EUFOR gave a short speech where he welcomed all in attendance and thanked them for their contribution to the mission. He noted that the female soldiers and officers of EUFOR and NATO HQ Sarajevo have impressed him through their professionalism and dedication to work. Furthermore, he highlighted the continuity and high level of performance of female civilian personnel, who make up exactly 50% of EUFOR local civilian employees.
COM EUFOR commented that, as we celebrate IWD 2023 we note that 2023 has been identified as European Year of the Skills, stating that
“Women should be encouraged to advance in science, engineering, technology and mathematics. Those fields are crucial and constitute a high demand in the job marked, yet they are still dominated by men. This fundamental issues also applies to the military.”
COM EUFOR invited Com NATO HQ Sarajevo, Brig Gen McGaha to speak, during which she thanked all women in attendance for supporting her, the mission, their families and each other, noting that she is proud to serve alongside these women.
Following this, all females in attendance were presented with flowers as a sign of EUFOR’s appreciation of its female members.
Commenting after the event, Gender Advisor to COM EUFOR Nikolina Marčeta said “8th March is an occasion to remember and mark all the struggles women had to go through and the strength they invested on their path to equality which is in many areas around the world as well as in many segments of different societies still not achieved. Women of EUFOR are here because they rightfully belong here and they are certainly contributing to diversity which we need and welcome. Security has no gender and we need to be able to understand all the differences in relation to security concerns of people of Bosnia and Herzegovina. All our men and women are required to understand those differences to achieve the best possible results."
Currently, there are 75 female soldiers, NCOs and officers under the command of COM EUFOR. There are female soldiers among the ranks of 15 troop contributing nations. Bulgaria has the largest number of female soldiers with 14
