ROYAL Air Force recruitment chief Air Vice-Marshall Maria Byford said, if recruits met the minimal qualifications to enlist, the board meeting would consider legal methods to utilise “positive action” so that candidates may potentially be chosen based on merit, gender, or race.
Byford also said she is “unashamed” of a strategy that critics claim might result in giving priority to women and people of colour over white males.
They had “slowed” down the hiring process for all applicants when statistics revealed that the RAF (Royal Air Force) was not meeting diversification goals.
Air Vice-Marshall Maria Byford is the chief of staff personnel and one of the highest-ranking female commanders in the air force.
“I want the best people. So, I need the best people to join to achieve the best they can during their service career, and we get what we need from an operational capability perspective. And if I can include more women and more people from different backgrounds in that I think I have a better service in the long run. We are unashamed about doing that because I think that’s a good thing,” she told The Times.
In response to critics who have charged the RAF with “wokery” and policies that are “little short of an illegal campaign of institutional sexism and racism against white male officers,” she stated that the board would “not necessarily” prioritise women and recruits of underrepresented ethnic groups over white men.
According to Byford, RAF has been “just shy” of reaching its diversity goals for this year of 25 per cent women and 12 per cent people from ethnic minority, falling short by 5 percentage points and 4-5 percentage points respectively. So, she explained that as a result, she had instructed her recruiting staff at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire to hold off on enrolling students in training programmes until early September.
Additionally, Byford rejected the claims that the diversity push may have affected RAF’s operational requirements. Aiming higher than the Army or Royal Navy, the RAF wants to boost the percentage of women recruits to 40 per cent and that of people from ethnic minorities to 20 per cent by the year 2040.
An MoD (Ministry of Defence) spokesperson said: “No standards will be lowered for any group to get into the RAF. Basic training courses will be full when they commence. There is no threat to the RAF’s operational effectiveness.”
Air Vice-Marshall Maria Byford’s comments followed the resignation of a female group captain who ran the recruiting department at RAF Cranwell apparently over concerns the fighting strength of the RAF could be undermined by “impossible” targets.
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