Ladies Leading the Charge: Female Defence Ministers From All Around the Globe

The issue of gender equality is spreading around the globe at ever-increasing pace, encompassing more and more areas in society. Today, we take a look at how women have entered one of the last male bastions — the defence of the fatherland. Europe is in the lead with a record number of 9 female defence ministers.

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French Defence Minister Florence Parly appears in the window of a French Air Force Airbus A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) during an inauguration ceremony at the Istres military base, southern France, on 19 October 2018.

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Dutch Defence Minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert talks to a Dutch soldier after a NATO Response Force (NRF) exercise in Zagan, southwest Poland on 18 June 2015.

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Spanish Minister of Defence Margarita Robles (L) talks with King of Spain Felipe VI (R) during a meeting of the North Atlantic Alliance at NATO headquarters in Brussels on 21 November 2018.

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Albanian Defenсe Minister Mimi Kodheli checks a military vehicle as US Ambassador Donald Lu to Albania smiles in Tirana.

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Minister of Defenсe Radmila Sekerinska (L) looks on during a meeting with Secretary of Defenсe Jim Mattis at the Pentagon in Washington, DC on 1 May 2018.

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Spanish Minister of Defence Maria Dolores de Cospedal arrives to take part to the first Council of Ministers of Spain's new government at La Moncloa Palace in Madrid on 4 November 2016.

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French Defence Minister Michele Alliot Marie speaks to French soldiers as they wait to board a plane to Lebanon at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport, north of Paris, 12 September 2006.

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German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen, right, is accompanied by an unidentified German soldier after her arrival in Azraq air base in northern Jordan Saturday, 13 January 2018.

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Czech Defence Minister Vlasta Parkanova, left, arrives for a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Seville, Spain, 8 February 2007.

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Indian Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman gestures on board a Sukhoi 30 at an Indian Air Force Base in Jodhpur on 17 January 2018.

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German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen (L) and Italian Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti share a laugh ahead of an EU foreign affairs and defence meeting at the European Council, in Brussels on 14 November 2016.

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Japan's first female Defence Minister Yuriko Koike (L, black suits) reacts to a salute from officers as she inspects a Japanese Maritime Defence Force naval base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa prefecture, south of Tokyo, 9 July 2007. Koike replaced former Defence chief Fumio Kyuma after his saying the 1945 nuclear attacks on Nagasaki and Hiroshima "couldn't be helped".