The Undersecretary of Defence, Adoración Mateos, today presided over the presentation of the ONCE ticket for Thursday, May 4, which celebrates the 35th anniversary of the incorporation of women into the Armed Forces (FAS), a reason that will be carried throughout the Spain five million coupons.
Miguel Carballeda, president of the ONCE Social Group, has delivered a reproduction of the commemorative coupon to the Defence Undersecretary, who on behalf of Minister Margarita Robles has thanked “the magnificent disposition that we always find in ONCE for any type of event related to the Armed forces”.
In this case, Mateos has applauded “the visibility that this coupon gives the process of integrating women into the FAS”, a gradual process that has become an international reference model, with a current participation of 15,617 women in the armies, 13 percent, “above the average of the countries around us” and one point more than the NATO average.
Today, military women “can access all posts and scales, all jobs and occupy all destinations, including the most operational ones,” recalled Mateos, who stressed that “this has made our model internationally known, both for integration as well as for structure”, as well as for the “extremely important participation of women in all processes of peacekeeping operations, where advice on gender matters is one of the most important assets when it comes to guaranteeing your success”.
The highest percentage of women is found in the so-called Common Bodies (34.99%), with tasks such as the judiciary or health. In the Air Force the presence of women is 14.18%; 13.68% in the Navy and 11.45% in the Army. In 2019, the first woman became a general, currently a division general; and in 2021 she was promoted again.
The president of ONCE, for his part, stated that “we are proud that our country’s armies do so many things to help people” a commitment that unites them “in many actions that we carry out together”.
Carballeda recalled that since 2007 ONCE has dedicated 17 different coupons to the Armed Forces on the occasion of different anniversaries and “I think that this demonstrates our recognition of the FAS and the desire that Spanish citizens can share our admiration and pride for the work you do.”
This is the second time that an ONCE coupon commemorates the entry of women into the armies and the Navy, the first was in 2018 on the occasion of the 30th anniversary. Other relevant events of the FAS that appeared in the coupons of the social group have been: the 30th anniversary of the Peace Operations in 2019; the 15th anniversary of the UME in 2020 or the 125th anniversary of the Hospital Central de la Defensa ‘Gómez Ulla’ in 2021.
The Defence Undersecretary also underlined the “very positive, fruitful and enriching collaboration that we have been carrying out for many years” between the ONCE Foundation, the Ministry of Defence and the Spanish Committee of Representatives of Persons with Disabilities (CERMI), especially in the “work that is carried out in the training of military emergency personnel in the different types of disabilities”.
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