Women in warfare and the military (2000–present)

This article is about women in warfare and the military (2000–present) throughout the world outside the United States. For women in warfare and the military in the United States since 2000, please see: Timeline of women in warfare and the military in the United States, 2000–2010 and Timeline of women in warfare and the military in the United States, 2011–present.

2000 8 March: Lim Sok Bee becomes the first female commanding officer of an artillery battalion in Singapore. 27 March: Elza Kungayeva, an 18-year-old Chechen woman, is abducted and murdered by a Russian Army Colonel during the Second Chechen War. Her murder was one of the first cases in which Russian authorities promptly and publicly acknowledged a war crime perpetrated by Russian federal forces against civilians in Chechnya. September: West Side Boys, an armed group in Sierra Leone, are destroyed during Operation Barras, and subsequent operations by the Sierra Leone Army and the British Army's Royal Irish Rangers, the Parachute Regiment and the Special Air Service. The group had female fighters as well as male ones. Lone Træholt became the first woman in the Danish Air Force to hold the rank of lieutenant colonel (). María Elena Mendoza Quan graduated as Central America’s (and El Salvador’s) first female attack pilot of an A-37B warplane. The Equality amendment to the Military Service law stated that "The right of women to serve in any role in the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) is equal to the right of men". Major Micky Colton became the first female Hercules pilot in the Canadian military to complete 10,000 flying hours. Lieutenant Ruth Ann Shamuhn became the first female combat diver in the Canadian military. Brooke Chivers and Aroha Fifield became the Royal Australian Air Force's first women to graduate to fast jets. Since 2000, women are allowed to voluntarily serve in the Mexican military, with restrictions to medical units. Canada granted permission for females to serve in submarine units "Colonel Black Diamond" joins the rebel group LURD, going on to command its all-female wing, the Women's Artillery Commandos, during the Second Liberian Civil War.

2001 German women are allowed to serve in combat units as of 2 January 2001 rather than only being admitted to medical units/musicians in the military bands. March: Hikaru Saeki became the first female star officer (admiral and general) in the history of the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) with her promotion to Rear Admiral. April: The first female jet fighter pilot for the Israeli Air Force, Roni Zuckerman, received her wings in 2001. May: Capt. Maryse Carmichael became the first female Snowbird pilot in Canada. November: Chechen woman Aiza Gazuyeva assassinates a Russian general by suicide bombing. She is the first Chechen shahidka, or "black widow", a term for female suicide bombers. More women begin to copy her example. December: Julie Hammer becomes the first woman Commandant of the Australian Defence Force Academy. New Zealand women authorized to serve in all defense units.

2002 Chief Warrant Officer Camille Tkacz is the first woman appointed to a Command Chief position as assistant deputy minister (Human Resources – Military) Chief Warrant Officer in Canada. January: Yang Seung Sook becomes the first female general in the history of the South Korean military. May: Captain Philippa Tattersall becomes the first woman to earn the Royal Marines green beret. She is not allowed to serve in combat, however. 26 September: Three female airforce officers are appointed as airforce fighter pilots in South Korea, making them the first women to become fighter pilots in the history of the country. Jang Se-jin became the first female transport plane pilot in South Korea.

2003 Maj. Anne Reiffenstein became the first female in Canada to command a combat arms sub-unit. Lt.-Cmdr. Marta Mulkins is the first woman to serve as a captain of a Canadian warship. Maj. Jennie Carignan of 5 Combat Engineer Regiment (5 CER) becomes the first female Deputy Commanding Officer of a combat arms unit in Canada. Leading Seaman Hayley John and Leading Seaman Marketa Semik are the first female clearance divers in Canada. Master Seaman Colleen Beattie is the first woman in Canada qualified as a submariner, followed shortly by Master Seaman Carey Ann Stewart. The first all-female Canadian military team to complete the Nijmegen March in the Netherlands carrying the same weight as male teams do so in 2003. The team members are: team leader Lieut. Debbie Scott, second-in-command Capt. Lucie Mauger, Lieut. Jody Weathered, Cpl. Elizabeth Mutch, Warrant Officer Nathalie Mercer, Warrant Officer Jackie Revell, Master Corporal Denise Robert, Cpl. Melissa Cedilot, Cpl. Danette Frasz, Lt.-Col. Teresa McNutt, Lieut. Donna Rogers and Cpl. Anne MacDonald. Julie Hammer, RAAF, is promoted to Air Vice-Marshal. She is the first woman to achieve two-star rank in the history of the Australian Defence Force. 27 February: Serbian politician Biljana Plavšić is sentenced to 11 years in prison for war crimes. July: Lt.-Cdr. Marta Mulkins takes command of a Maritime Coastal Defence Vessel, HMCS Kingston. She is the first woman commanding officer of a Canadian Navy ship. Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace brings about the end of the Second Liberian Civil War. Leymah Gbowee and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf are instrumental in this, and were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011. Pyeon Bo-ra became the first South Korean female fighter pilot.

2004 Chief Petty Officer, 1st Class Jan Davis is appointed Coxswain of HMCS Regina and is the first woman Coxswain of a major warship in Canada. Major D., an IAF MANAT (Flight Test Center) test-engineer flew the F-16I Sufa on Tuesday (27 April 2004). She was the first woman in the Israel Defense Forces to fly a F-16I jet. 4 February: Italian war correspondent Giuliana Sgrena is kidnapped in Iraq by insurgents. The car carrying her and her companions was shot at while by American forces at a checkpoint during her release in March, wounding her and killing an Italian intelligence agent. 9 March: American lawyer Fern Holland is killed while working for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. 31 October: S/Sgt Denise Rose, British Army, becomes the first female British soldier to die in military operations in the Iraq War. Her death is ruled to be a suicide by an inquest. Russia's first all-girls military school, Moscow Girls Cadet Boarding School No. 9, opened in 2004. The law was changed in Switzerland to allow women to become fighter pilots. Caracal Battalion, Israel's first mixed female and male combat unit, was created in 2004.

2005 Elizabeth Cosson becomes the first woman to be promoted to the rank of Brigadier in the Australian Army. War correspondent Gina Cavallaro watched her military escort, 20-year-old Spc. Francisco Martinez, be killed by an enemy sniper in Iraq. She later expanded upon her experiences in her book, Sniper: American Single-Shot Warriors in Iraq and Afghanistan. The first woman to take command of an Italian war vessel was Catia Pellegrino after graduating the Naval Academy in 2005.

2006 May: Flight Lieutenant Sarah-Jayne Mulvihill becomes the first British servicewoman to be killed in the Iraq War. 17 May: Captain Nichola Goddard, (Canadian Forces Land Force Command), became the first Canadian woman to be killed in action since World War II, the first female Canadian Forces member killed during combat duty, and the first Canadian female combat soldier to be killed on the front lines. She was near the front lines serving as a forward artillery observer during a battle with Taliban forces. She was killed when a rocket-propelled grenade struck her light-armoured vehicle. 16 June: Pte Michelle Norris, British Army, saves the life of her sergeant by climbing out of a vehicle and pulling him from the turret of the Warrior Patrol Vehicle that they were in while under heavy gunfire. She is eventually awarded the Military Cross for her actions, and is the first woman to receive one. 12 August: Sgt. Maj. Keren Tendler, the first female Israeli helicopter flight mechanic, is killed in action during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict along with four other crew members. A fund is later established in her name to help other women become flight mechanics. 22 September: Aviation Cadet Saira Amin wins the Sword of Honour at The Pakistan Air Force Academy, becoming the first female aviation cadet to do so. 7 October: War correspondent Anna Politkovskaya, who made her reputation reporting on Chechnya, was murdered.The State of the World's Human Rights , Amnesty International 2009, Report on Jan–Dec 2008, p. 272: "In June , the Office of the Prosecutor General announced that it had finished its investigation into the killing of human rights journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot dead in Moscow in October 2006. Three men accused of involvement in her murder went on trial in November; all denied the charges. A fourth detainee, a former member of the Federal Security Services who had initially been detained in connection with the murder, remained in detention on suspicion of another crime. The person suspected of shooting Anna Politkovskaya had not been detained by the end of the year and was believed to be in hiding abroad." 4 December: Linda Corbould led the RAAF's first all-female aircrew during a training flight. Corbould was subsequently appointed the Senior Air Force Officer in Tasmania, a position she had requested. In December 2006 female cadets from the Pakistan Military Academy for the first time assumed guard duties at the mausoleum of Quaid-e-Azam at Karachi. In this year women were enrolled in the Pakistani military for assignments other than duties in medical setups/units for the first time in history. Bombardier Allison Jones became the first woman to fire the One O'Clock Gun at Edinburgh Castle. Brigadier General Christine Whitecross became the first female Joint Task Force Commander in the Canadian military. Line Bonde became the first female Danish fighter pilot.

2007 In 2007 the Brigade of Gurkhas announced that women are allowed to join. Like their British counterparts, Gurkha women are eligible to join the Royal Engineers, Logistics Corps, Signals and brigade band, although not infantry units. 19 January: The United Nations first all female peacekeeping force is set to deploy to Liberia. The peacekeeping force is made up of 105 Indian policewomen. March: The Botswana Defence Force begins recruiting women into military service. Tebogo Masire, the commander, states that they will not receive special treatment. March: Acting Leading Seaman Faye Turney, a British sailor, is captured by Iran along with fourteen other British sailors. While captive, she appears on television apologizing for trespassing in Iranian waters, and also writes a letter stating that she and her fellow sailors "apparently trespassed" on Iranian waters. April: The fifteen British sailors captured by Iran are released. It is revealed that Acting Leading Seaman Faye Turney was separated from the other sailors and singled out for special treatment by the Iranians. In a news conference, some of the other sailors state that she was used as a propaganda tool by Iran. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad criticizes the United Kingdom for sending Turney, the mother of a young child, into a war zone. Since 2007, Mexico's army has allowed women soldiers to work as pilots and engineers in addition to nurses, doctors, and cooks. Women have been serving since the Mexican Revolution but often acting as men or cooks. Lieutenant Colonel Tammy Harris became the first female Wing Commander in the Canadian military. Commodore Jennifer Bennett became the first woman appointed Commander of the Naval Reserve and the first female to command a Formation in the Canadian military.