Always in the Minority

Interviewer: What was it like, through all these ranks and all these opportunities, was the part of being a woman a challenge?

It's funny I was having a conversation or I guess a drink recently with of all people, David Chilton, and I had met him in the context of some work that I was doing with Canadian Forces Morale and Welfare Services and he was the one who actually said, “Boy, when you joined the military, you were probably a bit of, you would definitely have been in the minority.” And I had to kind of reckon back to I guess I was but through thirty one years of being in the military, you almost start to take it for granted. You are always in the minority such that I stopped thinking of myself as a woman in the military, I just thought of myself as an officer in the military and certainly as I grew in rank probably often I would be maybe the only woman in the room and especially at senior meetings and what not, but it almost became invisible, like you don't, I never thought of it that way but now as I reflect back, it was probably strange, right? And, you know, there would often be cat calls or not cat calls but more things like well she got promoted because she’s a woman. Yes, they are just trying to, they needed to have so many women promoted. There are those sort of negative comments but at the same time women who were coming up behind you and even today in my current job, they look at me as a role model and see the strength of character and know that that’s very important, that you can't listen to those things that other people say. You have to kind of be true to yourself and true to the institution and that's the best gift you can give.