"The parade line-up follows my command," shouts Inka von Puttkamer during a ceremonial roll call at the Kiel naval base. She is the new commander of the 3rd Minesweeper Squadron — and the first woman to head a combat unit in the German Navy.

Since 2001, all Bundeswehr careers have been open to women, because Germany changed its military service policy after a European Court of Justice decision in 2000 that granted women unrestricted access to all military careers.

"A lot has happened since then," Maja Apelt, military sociologist at the University of Potsdam, told DW. Indeed, there are many more women serving in the Bundeswehr today than some decades ago. In 1985, there were only 117 women in the service — a tiny fraction of military personnel, while in December last year, more than 24,000 women were employed by the Bundeswehr.

New contact points, such as equal opportunities officers, were also established. "A lot has happened on the formal side," Apelt adds.

But the total proportion of women is still low compared to the whole of the Bundeswehr. Those 24,000 women represent only around 13% of military staff. And most — more than 8,000 — are in the medical service. Minus these, the proportion of women in the Bundeswehr falls to less than 9%. This is despite the fact that the German government recently set its gender equality goal at 20%.

If Germany........

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