As the Indian Air Force gets ready to allow women in the cockpit of fighter planes, a big challenge that Pamela Pereira and her colleagues faced two decades ago will be mostly missing or will be too feeble.
This retired wing commander, who now pilots Boeing 737s for Jet AirwaysBSE -6.01 %, was part of the first batch of woman pilots inducted by the IAF in 1994 for non-combat duties. For Pereira and her female colleagues, who just breached a male bastion then, a bigger challenge than piloting planes through rough weather was fighting perceptions - mostly outside the forces, but to some extent inside the IAF as well - as many at the time didn't approve of women working in such hostile conditions or accept their capabilities.
"We were the first batch of woman pilots and every crew room we walked into, every squadron we joined, every commander we worked under, we had to prove ourselves all over again," she said. Within the IAF, the problem remained only till the male officers realised what the women were capable of.
07/11/15 Deepshikha Hooda/Economic Times
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This retired wing commander, who now pilots Boeing 737s for Jet AirwaysBSE -6.01 %, was part of the first batch of woman pilots inducted by the IAF in 1994 for non-combat duties. For Pereira and her female colleagues, who just breached a male bastion then, a bigger challenge than piloting planes through rough weather was fighting perceptions - mostly outside the forces, but to some extent inside the IAF as well - as many at the time didn't approve of women working in such hostile conditions or accept their capabilities.
"We were the first batch of woman pilots and every crew room we walked into, every squadron we joined, every commander we worked under, we had to prove ourselves all over again," she said. Within the IAF, the problem remained only till the male officers realised what the women were capable of.
07/11/15 Deepshikha Hooda/Economic Times
