Back in the 1980’s in Australia when you finished high school, the choices for an 18-year-old woman were not eye watering in their vastness. The school career counsellor (if there was one) tended to push you in the direction of nursing, teaching, banking or administration. I remember completing a career profiling exercise in Year 11 which indicated that my best vocational option would be a Prison Warden…but this is not about me.
This is about Jen Wittwer, who, by the time she moved away from full-time service in the Australian Navy in 2018, was one of only a handful of women to have served in the rank of Captain, at one stage reporting directly to the Chief of the Defence Force, one of the first two women senior logistics officers to serve, in charge of the logistics department, on a naval ship at sea, and the first military woman to walk the Kokoda Trail.
Like many women trail blazers, while there have been a lot of ‘firsts’ in Jen Wittwer’s life, this was through sheer force of will as opposed to living a charmed life or taking the easy route – I was very naive when I joined officer training as an 18 year old woman. I didn’t know or even understand the culture that I was joining. It never occurred to me, ever, that I was joining an organisation that was not women friendly. I had such romantic notions of the navy, having grown up on a diet of Frank Sinatra sailor movies.
An acute awakening to the overt ‘maleness’ of the organisation she had joined came quickly. At the officer selection interview, she was asked by the senior Navy officer present, if she was joining the navy to find a husband.
Sexual harassment, sexual overtures, bullying, and sexual abuse were common – it was a toxic environment where over 90% of the workforce was male and pornographic posters adorned office walls.
At 20 Jen was raped on base – I buried that for a long time. I didn’t report it. I got up the next day and just got on with my training and my career. It was a man’s world and I felt that there was no point in reporting it. But it is an event that stuck with her and precipitated her later work supporting women.
Today, Jen is 61. She says she is trying to accept she is in her 7th decade. She is an international consultant on gender equality in the security sector. She is one of the highest sought after global experts on women in conflict, peacekeeping, sexual exploitation and abuse. Still trail blazing, she consults to international organisations such as the UN Women in New York, Ukraine and Jordan; NATO in Afghanistan and Brussels; and international armed forces and police organisations in implementing key international commitments and conventions relating to women’s meaningful participation in peace and security efforts.
And she loves it – I wish I had been doing this my whole life. I have found my home. I am doing what I believe I was sent here to do.
Jen recognises, however, that she would never have been able to do this magnificent groundbreaking work today without the 40 years of hard slog, ground breaking work she did for the navy – my rape and the treatment of women in the navy became a driving force for me as a 20 year old woman. It made me want to stay and do something about it. I wouldn’t let them beat me. If anything, it made me want to be part of the change.
And so, every time there was an opportunity to put her hand up, Jen did. She pushed and she pushed and there was resistance every step of the way – and her response – You can’t exclude me or harass me or bully me simply because I am a woman.
Can you even imagine the depth of courage and endurance this must have taken? For 40 years? And not once during her 40 years of service did Jen have a woman boss.
As she progressed in her naval career, her confidence grew, and she continued to push back on the traditional beliefs held about women serving in the military. From 2012 Jen became more engaged in the international arena. She was deployed to Afghanistan in 2013 as a gender advisor and between 2013 and 2016 she led the Australian government National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security. In 2016 she moved to New York and worked for the United Nations as a policy specialist on peacekeeping, gender mainstreaming in the security sector, and sexual exploitation and abuse.
Working directly to the Australian Chief of the Defence Force towards the end of her naval career was a breath of fresh air. Jen wrote her own job description – creating her own life by design – I was left to my own devices because he trusted me. It was so liberating. The autonomy was huge and I could shine.
Jen is the author of ‘Against the Wind: how women can be their authentic selves in male dominated professions’. She has just finished her Masters in International Development, and is contemplating her PHD – I sometimes think about stopping. I am getting older but in my head I’m still 25, so I’m going to keep going because I love what I do.
Hell lady, you are just getting started.
