Spotlight on: RAF Association

The RAF might have the highest proportion of serving female personnel, but those personnel typically have a smaller network to turn to. With women in the forces was no surprise that when the RAF Association reached out to women in 2024 to understand the challenges they’re facing, there was one topic which came out in almost every response. “Loneliness and isolation was just huge. Simply the fact that you may be the only woman among 50 or 100 men but also it was about the ranks as well; women can’t always open up to their teams, they wanted to reflect being a strong leader for their superiors. It didn’t matter if they were serving in tech, support or flying – it was all the same among all the women,” says Carola Becker, Head of Wellbeing for RAFA. 

Nearly half (47%) of respondents to RAFA’s survey said they felt lonely often, always or some of the time, compared to just under 1 in 3 (29%) civilian women (ONS, August 2024). That’s when RAFA sought funding from our Serving Women Seen & Heard programme to design a series of online workshops led by women, for women – to develop spaces for that community and those connections. Sessions for 2025 and 2026 are filling up, covering everything from menopause and women’s health to career networking, finances, loneliness in command and the art and science of positivity. Everybody who signs up is invited to join the project’s online Teams group to connect with each other and discuss their challenges, but also celebrate wins! 

“As women, we always think that everything needs to be perfect: do our jobs well, look after our family, have the active social life and it just doesn’t always work like that. One of the topics we’re going to cover is about balance, with the first female Typhoon pilot Helen Seymour. It resonates so strongly with one of the women I interviewed who told me: ‘I’ve found myself often caught in the impossible pursuit of perfection – being an exemplary RAF member, a great mum, a helpful friend. What I’ve come to realise is that balancing commitments is not so much about perfection, it’s more about authenticity and making myself a priority.’”