Visakhapatnam: Working together for better security operations

Visakhapatnam: Today's navy is a much better one. To maintain a more secure, open and resilient Indo-Pacific, bringing women's perspectives and experiences in the capabilities gains a larger significance because together there is a scope for conducting better security operations, opines Commander Lauren Leigh Milburn, Women's Strategic Advisor, Royal Australian Navy (RAN).

In an exclusive interview with The Hans India, the Commander, who chaired the 'Women in Uniform' seminar featured as a part of the 'Indo-Pacific Endeavour-2022' in Visakhapatnam, says women in RAN have come a long way as it made a lot of progress in the past 30 years. "Back then, women did not have equal roles to play. Now, there is no challenging role left that women cannot embark upon," shares the Commander.

Appreciating the Indian Navy for its keenness to increase women's participation, Commander Milburn says, "Although our cultures are diverse, I think, women in India face a bigger challenge in striking work-life balance because of high expectations, especially post wedding. In Australia, it is more acceptable for women to have a career of their own and fulfil family commitments in an independent way. Also, men play a major part in extending support to women."

From the current 23.6 per cent, Commander Milburn says, RAN's next target is to push women's participation to 25 per cent in a couple of years.

When Lauren Leigh Milburn joined the Royal Australian Navy 29 years ago as a Maritime Warfare Officer, she was engrossed in driving and navigating ships for about a decade. As an Aviation Warfare Officer, she was engaged in flying helicopters for another 10 years. "Predominantly working in the leadership, culture development domain for the past nine years, it has been a great privilege and responsibility to work with people and guide them to be better leaders," Commander Milburn conveys.

About RAN's support to the Women Peace and Security Agenda, Commander Milburn says that bringing the agenda perspectives into military operations would eventually sum up the navy's effectiveness. "Whether we are responding to a humanitarian or disaster response or out on a security mission, having different perspectives and innovation certainly benefit capabilities," she elaborates.

Underlining the importance of building a healthy work culture for women and making them feel safe to approach in case of any negative impact of harassment on their wellbeing and ability to perform at work, Commander Milburn says, "There are a lot of reasons why women feel unsafe to report such incidents. Currently, we are working on a special project to understand the nature, scale, risk and driving factors of the problem. A dedicated team is researching this 'grey area' to assess why women feel reluctant to report such issues so that we can change the system to make the workplace better and safer and work towards effective prevention mechanism."

The Commander says that an invitation has been extended to the Indian Navy representatives to visit Australia. "So that we show them our facilities, share our policies, best practices and also things that have not worked pretty well for us. We are doing a lot of work in the Indo-Pacific Region. With our friends in India and other Pacific neighbours, we do a lot of work-sharing so that we can increase the participation of women in the service and make sure that the place is safe so that they get equal opportunities in leadership and advancement," she explains.

For women who aspire to join the navy, Commander Milburn advises them to believe in themselves. "Don't be afraid to challenge the 'stereotypes'. There is a need for women to support each other. Also, men with good leadership have to support women to be part of the inclusive team. Together, we can achieve so much more," the Commander suggests.