Outstanding In The Military Essay

“It was only after that evening that I really started to question whether or not the Canadian Forces, now called the Canadian Armed Forces, had evolved into a welcoming environment for women over the last two decades” (Perron, 309). In the memoir Outstanding in the Field, Sandra Perron fights to be Canada’s first female infantry officer. She battles against her allies, trying to be a woman in a ‘mans world’. The absence of concrete progress in the treatment of women in the military, altered Perron’s naïve view. When Perron first joined the military, she was unjaded about the prejudice that was coming her way. In cadets she was an equal, but her first experience of gender discrimination came when she received a red chit during inspection. The chit was for having her arduously earned Para wings pinned on. Despite stating her course number, number of jumps, captain, warrant officer and who had ceremonially pinned them on, she was not allowed to wear them.

She believed that all she had to do was preserve and pave the way for future combat women. If she could do it, then the military would see that women can be in combat. Perron in the beginning would “chalk up their impropriety to the newness of having women in combat arms” (50). Eventually, her last tour in Croatia ended, resulting in the transfer to Gagetown as a phase 2 infantry training officer, in a junior position. This frustrated leading her to take a position in Ottawa, with the stipulation that she leave the Canadian forces (287). Working in Ottawa, Perron, felt like a secretary, doing office work when she was meant for more. Leaving the military was a tough decision, but one that needed to happen. Perron, was disappointed in the Canadian Forces as they continued to make it harder for her and any other women to succeed. They would purposely make it impossible for women to get ahead. Thus, Perron’s next ordered position at