The Defence women’s campaign is an awareness campaign aimed at getting women interested in working in the peace and security field. Research has shown that women actually do not know that Defence is looking for them and what the possibilities are. They think that Defence is a man’s world with only combat roles, and do not know about the organisation’s role in society.

The campaign addresses the prejudices, the various opportunities that Defence provides for women, and the organisation’s social role and the humanitarian activities it undertakes. We developed a striking prejudices campaign that addressed denigrating social media posts made by men. Women from Defence read these ‘mean tweets’ out loud in short films. Minister Hennis-Plaasschaert also takes part, reading out the tweets addressed to her. These reaction films are posted on YouTube and other channels where women can be reached. Portraits of four Defence women detail the roles and tasks carried out by these women and beautifully illustrates their daily life and work at Defence. We flesh the campaign out further with things such as discussions on women’s online platforms. We launch a website specially designed for and by women, where they can find more information.

A special aspect of this campaign is a targeted PR campaign that has proven to be very successful. The campaign received extensive attention from Radio 538, BNR, the Volkskrant, Algemeen Dagblad, regional newspapers, Dutch media news, Metronieuws and RTL News, among others.