Karoline Resch becomes first female General Staff brigadier

Karoline Resch from Graz has become the first woman to serve as a brigadier in the General Staff of the Bundesheer, Austria’s armed forces, ORF reported. She took up the position in midweek and is currently helping develop a military service reform planned for 2027.

There are currently 355 women serving in the Bundesheer in Styria. Resch is responsible for the armed forces’ operational deployment planning and is working on the planned extension of basic military service.

“Waiting for someone else to be the first is of course convenient,” Resch said. “But if we all wait for someone else to achieve pioneering successes, and do not take the plunge ourselves, nothing will change. So just try.”

Resch said her appointment still felt “somewhat unreal”. She joined the General Staff training programme two years after the first women entered it, but was the first woman in the programme. She has now also become the first woman to advance through the General Staff service to head a department and serve as a brigadier.

The planned extension of basic military service initially applies only to male citizens, Resch said. Its aim is to provide them with the training needed to withstand combat conditions. She said the need to train conscripts for longer and more effectively was clear because the situation in Europe was not becoming safer.

Resch said that compulsory service for both men and women could be introduced in the future as part of efforts to advance equality by establishing equal duties alongside equal rights.

She also identified room for further improvement within the Bundesheer. Facilities and the organisation’s appearance had become considerably more diverse, she said, although further progress was still needed. “Improvement is where I see my focus,” Resch said.