This weekend I traveled to Zurich to celebrate a friends 30th Birthday. She told me that she needs to introduce me to a good friend of hers who is currently serving in the Swiss military. Everyone who knows me is aware that I am a strong advocate for more representation of women in the security sector. Especially, in high-ranking positions. Therefore, I was looking forward to meeting another like-minded young woman who decided to focus her professional career in the military.
Sarah Brunner
The moment I was introduced to Commander Sarah Brunner, I immediately knew that she has a very fascinating background. She told me about her experience serving in the Swiss military and as a UN Peacekeeper in Mali and Syria. Particularly, she recounted her experience in Mali, where she served in many different regions as a senior officer. She also informed me that she was the first woman to lead a swiss infantry team which I found extremely impressive. We continued our conversation on global security issues, women in the military and higher education. It was quick that we realized how similar our interests are and how we admired each others career path. Thus, we exchanged our contacts and I told her about my work and my website Kesecurix.
I have been brainstorming for a while for a new blog entry and I wanted to write about women in the Swiss police or military. Since my blog aims to bring more awareness about the existence and experiences women, ethnic and sexual minorities make in the security sector, I hope you will enjoy reading their stories with as much amaze as I did. While doing research on women in the armed forces, I came across an article published by “Kaufmännischer Verband Schweiz” where I found out that Sarah Brunner also served in Lebanon and went through a challenging life path which inspired her to enter an “unconventional” career and gave her the opportunity to follow her dreams. This September, she also told me, she will start her studies at the Military Academy at ETH Zurich.
source
(The news articles were published in German. I suggest for non-german speakers to copy or download the text and enter it in google translate)
Manuela Oppikofer
During my research, I further read a very inspiring story about a swiss-cameroonian female soldier. She was crowned Miss Swiss Earth in 2016, voluntarily enlisted for the swiss military cadet school and has now been serving for the swiss military since 2014.
source
