All the stereotypes of soldiers in popular culture are male. Search for ‘soldier’ on google images and the first page of results are all male. Women in the Army are virtually invisible.

This puts women off serving in the British Army, as they can’t relate being a soldier to ‘real’ women like them. As a result, less than 9% of soldiers in the UK are Female.

To make army careers relevant to British women, we knew we had to challenge the stereotype of what a soldier is in the very environments that had perpetuated them.

Since the campaign started, applications from women have gone up by 45%.

23% of applicants are now female.

With a little help from the source of these stereotypes, we’ve changed the face of the British Army.

54 pieces of print & video content ran across the physical and digital platforms of Marie Claire, Look and Now, reaching nearly 2 million women over several months.

This content documented the experiences of the intrepid journalists exploring different Army careers, showing what it is really like doing those roles day to day. They documented their experiences on video, in photos and in words, with the content making for inspiring reading and viewing.

The partnership finished with case studies of real-life inspirational women in the Army, showing how they are achieving great things across a range of Army career paths.

We persuaded editors and writers from 3 of the UK’s biggest women’s lifestyle magazine brands to swap their catwalks for camouflage and try out a range of careers in the army.

Over a dozen journalists signed up to see what regimental life is really like in the modern Army. We showed them how their current skills could be applied to different Army careers.

To add further credibility we recruited real female soldiers to tell their stories and break down all those sterotype-driven misconceptions that put women off applying to join.