Elanor Boekholt-O’Sullivan, the first woman to reach the rank of lieutenant-general in the Dutch armed forces, has been appointed as housing minister by D66.

The Irish-born Boekholt-O’Sullivan, 49, joined the air force at the age of 18 and has served on several overseas missions, including Afghanistan, where she oversaw the rebuilding of the country’s civil aviation sector.

In 2016 she became the first woman commander of a Dutch military airbase, in Eindhoven, where she was succeeded by her husband, major-general Harold Boekholt, two years later.

As housing minister she will be responsible for one of the new coalition’s top priorities and biggest logistical challenges of starting 30 new large-scale housing projects by 2030. The government also aims to build 100,000 new homes a year to fix a shortage of 400,000 houses.

The three-star general will receive the Aletta Jacobsprijs next month from the University of Groningen, which gives the award every two years to “a woman with an academic education who has given outstanding service, nationally or internationally, in the field of emancipation”.

The jury described her as “a woman who holds her own in the male-dominated world of the armed forces” and “succeeds in drawing attention to the still misogynistic aspects of the Ministry of Defence in a humorous way”.

Flak jackets

Boekholt-O’Sullivan’s achievements as head of policy include having flak jackets for women redesigned to fit the female figure.

When she was presented with the award for Woman of the Year by the Dutch socio-economic council two years ago she made a point of removing her tie, saying it had no place in the modern women’s uniform.

On Monday D66 also named former MP Sjoerd Sjoerdsma as minister for overseas development and trade. The 44-year-old former diplomat was foreign affairs spokesman until leaving parliament in 2023.

Sjoerdsma was placed on a list of sanctioned individuals by China four years ago, partly because of his outspoken criticism of Beijing’s treatment of the Uighur minority. He was also barred from entering Russia in 2020 as part of a parliamentary delegation, which prompted the other MPs to cancel the trip.

D66 senator and intelligence specialist Willemijn Aerdts is expected to be named by the party as junior minister for economic affairs, while Stientje van Veldhoven, junior minister for infrastructure in Mark Rutte’s third cabinet until 2021, is set to return to government as junior minister for climate and green growth.