Morgan Gallagher is nomail for Lactnet right now but I posed your question
to her this morning, Karleen, and this is her response:

On Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 5:05 AM, Morgan Gallagher<
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> No difference between being a woman at work anywhere, and being in the
> military, in the UK.
>
> http://www.navycs.com/uk/british-military-leave-benefits.html
>
> Not sure what you mean by sexual discrimination as such.  There are direct
> combat areas where women are not allowed to work, and therefore there are a
> few posts in those areas, that women can't be considered for.  But these
> are well known and detailed.
>
> In terms of sex disc of jobs and promotion structures, women in the
> military have the same legal protection as any woman: there are just a few
> posts they can't occupy.  But they can't be sent down mines to hew coal,
> either!
>
> Legal Position
> 15. The Sex Discrimination Act (1975) allows the Armed Forces to exclude
> women from those posts where the military judgement is that the employment
> of
> women would undermine and degrade combat effectiveness.  This policy was
> upheld
> by the European Court of Justice in October 1999, which ruled in Sirdar
> versus the
> Army Board and the Secretary of State that the Equal Treatment Directive
> did not
> preclude the exclusion of women from certain posts in the Armed Forces,
> where such
> exclusions were necessary and appropriate to ensure operational
> effectiveness, but
> there was a duty to assess periodically the activities concerned in order
> to decide
> whether, in the light of social developments, the derogation from the
> general scheme
> of the Directive may still be maintained.
>
>
> http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/10B34976-75F9-47E0-B376-AED4B09FB3B3/0/women_af_summary.pdf
>
> Does that answer the question?
>
> Morgan
>

On Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 3:07 AM, Karleen Gribble <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> > Were any UK Lactnetters able to find out whether women in the British
> military are afforded protection against sexual discrimination as per UK
> law?
> Karleen Gribble
> Australia
> >
> >
> > On 15/02/2012, at 12:05 PM, Jake Marcus wrote:
> >
> >> The big difference for me looking at how mothers are treated in "Women
> in the Defence forces have the protection afforded by anti-discrimination
> legislation which include breastfeeding as a protected activity."
> >>
> >> Karleen, I am not positive but I think this is likely not true. In
> Common Law countries, like Australia, the UK and the US, military law is
> entirely separate from civil or civilian law. Therefore military personnel
> do not enjoy the protection of discrimination law.
> >>
> >> Yours,
> >> Jake Marcus, JD
> >>
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