IT IS extremely rare for a woman to command their country’s armed forces, 

so when Rear Admiral Antonette Wemyss Gorman was appointed head of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) late last year it was an historic moment for female representation globally.

Wemyss Gorman, 49, became the second woman in history to lead a national army, and is the only serving woman to head a military force at this present time.

She rarely speaks to the media, but gave an interview with The Voice ahead of International Women’s Day, in which she talked about her plans for the army to engage with tens of thousands of young Jamaicans to encourage them to turn their back on crime.

What difference does a female head of army make? Welcoming the appointment, the Jamaican Senator, commented that “women bring some emotional intelligence and a different perspective to what they do”. Did Wemyss Gorman agree?

“Yes, I would say that women do bring a different perspective to any management job or any particular task that they have. And in fact, studies have really shown that in defence in particular, the inclusion of the perspective of both genders have had better results, operationally.”

Wemyss Gorman has been called ‘Sister Chief’ by the Jamaican Women’s Leadership Initiative, and has long been seen as a rising star in the JDF, after becoming head of the JDF’s Coast Guard in 2014.

She acknowledged that she is seen as a role model, adding: “It’s motivating me to continue to do my best to ensure that I am setting a good example and that I continue to provide opportunities for others to be able to achieve what they want to achieve in the military, and demonstrate how it can be done.”

Jamaica is possibly the only army in the world which has quotes for recruitment by gender. The JDF policy is that 25% of new recruits and those undergoing training must be made up of the minority gender.

Wemyss Gorman explained: “That’s enables us to ensure that in areas of the force where it was predominantly male, and also in areas that were predominantly female, we have the diversity.”

Wemyss Gorman has served with the JDF for almost three decades, and even before her appointment to the top job, she had clocked up a number of ‘firsts’ including the only woman to achieve a Flag Rank.

What challenges has she encountered in her 29 years in the JDF? “There are physical challenges, there are mental challenges, which I anticipate everyone, whether male or female, have not had in a career such as the military.

“Personally, I can’t say that there was any specific grand challenge that I can point to. I would suppose that I’m a relatively small person, so perhaps people would think that I’m too small to be a military woman.”

While she did not want to go into details, it is likely that Wemyss Gorman will want to crack down on misogyny in the force, and by doing so will make the JDF a shining example to the world where many nation’s armies are riddled with a testosterone-fulled ‘warrior culture’ among male soldiers.

Wemyss Gorman succeeded Lieutenant General Rocky Meade last autumn, following spells as a Brigade Commander, Maritime Air and Cyber Command, and Commanding Officer of the Coast Guard.

She enlisted in the JDF in 1992 and undertook initial training at the Britannia Royal Naval College in Devon, England, before becoming the first woman officer to serve on a Jamaica naval ship.

She is a graduate of the US Naval War College, holds a Master of Science degree with distinction in National Security and Strategic Studies from the University of the West Indies, and helped establish the Caribbean Military Maritime Training Centre which provides maritime training to the Caribbean region.

Having taken command of the entire defence force, she is now on a mission to help tackle the “culture of violence” in Jamaica.

She said: “Is my intention see the JDF engaging up to 20,000 young Jamaicans annually so we can change their ethos give them a different way of life of looking of approaching life, give them some skills that enable them to be more effective or more productive citizens.

“Whether or not they continue to engage with the defense force, they are now better off from their interaction with us, to be employed elsewhere and productive elsewhere in this Jamaican society.”

There is a lot on Wemyss Gorman’s in-tray, including the degree to which the JDF supports the Jamaica constabulary in dealing with domestic crime, and the extent there should be cross-party consensus on the army’s role.

The 1,400 murders in Jamaica last year, a 10% rise on the year before, means the domestic situation may demand the continued involvement of the JDF in supporting the police, but it is clear that any future improvement in the situation may lead to a recalibration.

She has spent over half her career at sea, sailing throughout the Caribbean, including Haiti, The Bahamas, and the Dominican Republic on multiple military and diplomatic missions.

Her time in these roles has clearly focused her mind on changing the way the JDF approach maritime matters, such as deepening partnerships with Spanish-speaking neighbours to the south, such as Costa Rica, Colombia and Honduras.

She somehow finds time in her incredibly busy schedule to be a wife and mother to a teenage son, and to indulge her love of travelling, which mostly involves long walks in Jamaica “because it is the most beautiful country in the world”, adding: “I do enjoy taking my son around Jamaica, I like to walk off the beaten paths in Jamaica.”

She joked: “I don’t think tourists should come to Jamaica and know somewhere that I don’t know.”

She is also an avid gardener, but achieving a work-life balance was not easy, she admitted, and that there were some “sacrifices” she had to make.

Wemyss Gorman is from rural Top Alston, Clarendon, and did not have family in the army so it was not something she thought about as a possible career, but she recalled being introduced to the idea by her schoolmates and “it piqued my interest.”

Her appointment has been widely welcomed across politics, and even reggae star Shaggy – a former soldier himself – said he was “extremely proud” that she had taken her new role.

The initiatives she has engaged in since taking up the hot-seat, like getting the army involved in planting three million trees, shows that having a woman in charge could make a big change in the culture and outlook of the JDF.