Female Leadership | Defence Women's Network

The Defence Women’s Network (DWN) exists to encourage discussion and exploration of gender and equality issues. Open to women and men alike, the DWN aims to break down barriers and end discrimination in the workplace.

We believe that only a diverse workforce can fully benefit from all the talent available. That is why we aim to support individuals to reach their full potential and celebrate the achievements of women.

We do this in three ways:

Celebrating the achievements of women so that we can inspire each other, aiming to remove limiting beliefs and foster empowering choices.

Creating an inclusive and supportive network, open to men and women, to share stories and opportunities in both career and life.

Sparking discussions around inequality across the workforce so that people feel safe to challenge inappropriate behaviour and set higher standards for the future.

The goals of the DWN are:

To foster greater focus on diversity and inclusion across the defence industry

To shine a light on barriers and discrimination in the workplace

To help address the issues of isolation and exclusion in organisational social structures

To raise awareness of the ongoing gender pay gap

To connect organisations with female role models

To boost employee confidence, connection and capability

To act as a platform for career development and leadership

To increase the number of women in heavily male dominated environments i.e., STEM, tech, data, cyber, AI, innovation and space

To drive cross-network collaborations across the defence enterprise

To find and amplify supportive male voices

The second annual DWN Conference will take place on 27th April 2023 in London. The theme of the conference will be 'Leadership & Self-Empowerment'. The event will examine how female leaders, at any grade/rank, can enhance their skills to become the leader they aspire to be.

It will also offer hands-on-advice and coaching on how to further develop your career in times of change. You will hear from inspirational women and men of all grades and levels from across the Civil Service and Industry. We will discuss how you can manage the challenges of modern leadership and help ensure that all don’t lose momentum in recognising and rewarding females across all organisations.

The conference will be hybrid and we will stream the event live. Applications for in-person tickets have now closed, however registration will remain open until 31st March for you to obtain a virtual ticket.

To register for a virtual ticket, please complete our application form.

Apply here

We’d like to take this opportunity to say a special thank you to our sponsors,

without whom the conference could not go ahead.

Find out more about our sponsors here.