Navy Chief to Assign More Important Role to Female Officers
13 January 2015 23:08 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Navy Chief of Staff Admiral Ade Supandi has promised to provide more opportunities for women to build their career at Women’s Naval Officer Corps (Kowal) to improve the gender equality at the Indonesian Navy.
“Kowal should no longer work at the kitchen. It’s time they sit on strategic positions,” Ade told journalists at Indonesian Navy headquarter in Jakarta on Tuesday, January 13, 2015.
Ade added that he wanted women in Navy to be ship commanders. According to Ade, there was a Kowal member who managed to command a patrol ship few years ago. He hopes that there would be more Kowal members who could command larger battleships.
“Dutch Navy has a female frigate ship commander. France even has a female fleet commander,” Ade said.
Ade also promised that he would increase Kowal numbers at the Navy to account for 15 percent of the total Navy officers from 5 percent.
“However, please note that professionalism remains the most important thing. Kowal shouldn’t expect special treatments,” he said.
INDRA WIJAYA
