Mach 2 with your hair on fire

You might not have heard of Major Dee Brasseur previously, but since she's being inducted into The Women in Aviation, International Pioneer Hall of Fame tomorrow, take a moment and learn about this impressive Canadian:

In 1981, Maj. Brasseur went from office clerk to one of the first two women in the world to fly the CF-18 Hornet. Later, she would become the first female military aircraft accident investigator in Canada.
...
Maj. Brasseur has served 27 years of regular and reserve service and logged more than 2,500 hours of extensive jet flying experience throughout North American and Europe. She currently works in the Directorate of Air Strategic Planning and is military co-chair of the Defence Women’s Advisory Organization in Ottawa.

“There’s no resemblance between today’s military and the military I joined in 1972,” says Maj. Brasseur. “Back then the Canadian Forces had a hard ceiling that only allowed 1,600 women in limited occupations out of a total of more than 83,000 Regular Force personnel...

I always thought women in the CF had a tough go of it. When I was in, fifteen years ago or so, it was my experience that the only reason some of the women made it though the training was to fill a quota. Those particular individuals were universally disliked. But there were many others who were exceptionally gripped. The problem was that the gripped ones had to work twice as hard to avoid being painted by the same wide brush of quota-filling placeholders as the incompetent ones. I found it sadly unfair, and I hope the situation has improved in today's CF.

That's why I think trailblazers like Maj Brasseur should be celebrated: they did it the hard way.