Balancing both family and military work is a huge challenge from what I have heard from the many women veterans I have interviewed for my research. I think the fact that the military does so little to accommodate having a family is certainly a disincentive for women to join. It is certainly a reason that many women leave. That has been established by outside research as well as DND and CAF research. The challenge of balancing family and military work is the reason that women leave, so it's a retention issue as well.
We know that having available child care is a big challenge, especially when you are reposted, because you often have to join a wait-list again. Another challenge is having 24-7 child care. Military work is a 24-7 job, so you need military-specific child care in order to be able to do the job.
The final thing I would say is that personnel policies are an example of policies that have been designed with men in mind. The norm is the male heterosexual service member who has a civilian spouse who can sort of pick up the slack. Of course, if we want women to join, we need to find ways for them to be able to be parents and be “good soldiers”. However we redesign family policies, it will also be to the benefit of all the men in the Canadian Armed Forces. This is a burden that falls primarily on women, but finding good solutions here will benefit all members of the Canadian Armed Forces.
One final point is that a lot of women in the Canadian Armed Forces are single, but a lot of them are part of a dual-service couple, with both a male service member and a female service member. It creates additional burdens when two people in the family are expected to be available 24-7 for the military. That is an additional burden that I would like to point out. Being a female service member and a female military spouse is a dual burden that I would like to draw your attention to.