Teenager proud P.M. has taken up her case

Press, 30 August 1986, Page 8

Teenager proud P.M. has taken up her case

PA Wellington A Rotorua fifth-former who wants to be a pilot, Angela Manssen, says she is proud of the Prime Minister, Mr Lange, for his stand on the role of women in the armed forces.

"Good on him,” she said when told Mr Lange would take the question to the Cabinet.

“I’m very pleased with him. I’m proud he’s our Prime Minister.”

She wrote to Mr Lange in May saying she felt let down because she wanted to join the Air Force and did not want to “be second best to someone with different genes.” That letter prompted what Mr Lange later

called a paper war about the role of women in the forces between him and defence chiefs that has lasted three months and is still not resolved. The Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Sir Ewan Jamieson, has written to Mr Lange that the chiefs wanted the most effective and combatready forces possible. Women in combat units would prejudice that goal. Mr Lange, who asks why women cannot fight if they want to, replied last week that this argument did not convince him. He intended to take the matter to the Cabinet The correspondence outlining these exchanges between the Government

and the defence heads was released by Mr Lange’s office yesterday. Miss Maassen’s letter was on the top. Her name had been deleted but the NZPA was able to reach her at home in Rotorua this afternoon. Miss Manssen did not know of the upset her letter to Mr Lange had caused until told by a reporter.

She still wanted to join the services, and did not see why women should not be able to fight' if need be.

Her mother, Mrs Alison Manssen, said her daughter had felt very strongly that women should be treated as equals. Her father, Mr Eric

Manssen, who had served in the Army, had told his daughter that the only way to do something about how she felt was to make those feelings known, hence the letter to Mr Lange. In it, Angela had told him she felt let down because she had grown up in a country where women, were said to be equal.

“Now that I am at the age when I am thinking of my future career, I have found out that it is untrue,” she wrote. Angela is attending Rotorua Girls’ High School where she will sit School Certificate in geography, maths, typing, home economics, English and horticulture.