Too few women are serving in the German military, the parliamentary commissioner for the armed forces, Eva Högl, has said in remarks published by the German media organization Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND) on Friday.
"We cannot go on as before," Högl, a member of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD), said.
Women currently make up a little over 13% of personnel serving in the Bundeswehr, the German military. "If one excludes the medics, the figure is below 10%," Högl said. This contrasts with the official target of 20% as laid down in law.
She also noted a lack of women in leadership positions, with currently just three female generals. Women occupying senior positions had to become normal, Högl said.
A Defence Ministry spokeswoman told RND that there had been a rise in the number of women applying to join the military. "Last year, 17% of applications came from women. We are extremely pleased about this," she said.
But she also acknowledged that the proportion of women in leading positions in the ministry was as low as 2%. Outside the ministry, 16% of leadership positions in the military were occupied by women, with the figure rising to 46% among military medics, she said.
Högl's predecessor, Hans-Peter Bartels, called for women to be included in the event of a return to military conscription, in remarks to national public radio Deutschlandfunk.
Bartels was speaking amid a debate in Germany about resuming conscription, which was suspended in 2011.