As a child in Primary and Middle School, it seemed the path of our destiny was already predetermined. If you were among the Top 3 of your class, you were destined to be in a brilliant career field. If not, and worse, if you were in the bottom 3, you were going to have a very challenging road to achieve success if you ever could. Moreover, your level in literature played a crucial part that defined whether you should take a scientific or literature track. The outcome was then that one may be oriented towards science even without being good at it, only because one have poor literature skills. By literature skills, I mean, how good one was in French which is not even our native language, but we had to learn it because it was mandatory as part of the official curriculum, as Madagascar is a former French colony. In terms of education, there are still some stereotypes like those who have hardly overcome the challenging road so far. The saddest part probably is that women are expected to follow a literature track and work inside offices all day long. Since our childhood, this is how our minds were shaped and unfortunately, this is still the case.

In the Malagasy society, people believe that where you come from will define who you will be in the future. I come from a family, predominantly composed of lawyers, administrators and entrepreneurs. Most of them are very successful in their own career field. As a result, my perspective for my future career field was quite biased based on my family’s history. My first choice was to become a lawyer. If you met me during High School, you would know that I dreamt of becoming a Judge at the International Court of Justice. However, I have not yet given up on that dream.

Surprisingly, I chose to follow a different path, one that was quite the opposite of my dream in High School. I was good at literature. I always got the best grades in French, English, Malagasy and Philosophy, but I refused to fit in with the stereotype that as a woman, if I am good at languages, then I must follow a literature orientation. The fact is that I was good at science too. I did not get the best grades in physics, mathematics or biology but I still understood it and got good grades and continued to be fascinated by it.

Malagasy society is living on the “survival spirit” every day. It is all about what you are good at and how to use it to the maximum potential to make a decent living for your family. Very few people dare to dream and think of what they can do with the little they have, as long as they are passionate. I believe that people can achieve great things with passion. Only our capacity to dream is the limit!

My dad made me choose the scientific orientation and I have not regretted it. For sure, even though I was not that great or a genius as some of my classmates, who are now very successful in their career, I pursued that track with hard work. After getting my Baccalaureate Degree, I did not have any clear idea about what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to do something unique and special because I always felt that I am special. I like challenges and enjoy doing things that people are afraid to do, succeed and then open the path for everyone else. That is how I am and what I like to do. When I was awarded my Baccalaureate Degree, for some reasons “without any distinction” also known as “passable” in French, I decided to apply and was accepted into the Industrial Engineering field within the Polytechnic university of Antananarivo. We all know how hard and competitive the admissions into this type of university are but I made it. As I remember, I have never been so proud of myself because I believed in me despite my grades for my Baccalaureate Degree. While I was studying in this prestigious school, I was given another opportunity to challenge myself to do something bigger than anything I could dream of. This was becoming an officer and being part of the Malagasy Air Force as a maintainer for helicopters and airplanes.

At that time, in 2010, females in the military were only allowed to join the branches of medicine and administration. I took the entrance test for the French Air Force Academy, the very first year when the Air Force, Navy and Infantry branches were open to females. In addition, I chose the maintenance career field in the Air Force. The first person to tell me to give up on that dream was my dad. My dream was too big that it scared him and I do not blame him because he spoke from experience. However, my mum was thinking the very opposite. She saw this as an opportunity of a lifetime. That is how women are and how women should always be. She taught me to never be afraid of what you can be, even if people say it is impossible.

I succeeded in my studies and was among the distinguished graduates of my class. All the hard work paid off. I knew that at the end of my studies, I would have to come back home to join the Malagasy Air Force and lead an entire squadron, composed only of men, as I was the first female in the Malagasy Air Force. That was an additional challenge but I knew it would totally give me a new sense to my life. I got an identity I was proud of and I was willing to make the most of it to earn and inspire young women.

Once I came back, I faced a different reality from what I learned and knew in my academic years. The lack of materials, equipment, antiquated and out-to-date aircrafts, and personnel composed of experienced people, all of whom were older than me. The Air Force I faced was in a bad shape and I had to rebuild it, or at least, make it work…Another challenge for me! Actually, at that time, the military decided to perform lots of joint operations in some areas classified as “red areas”, where the Dahalo were performing at their best to take advantage of the poverty and the weakness of people in very remote places to steal, rape, kill without any distinction of men, women or children. For two years, I regularly visited some of those places in the South of Madagascar to perform programmed maintenance and troubleshooting on the helicopters Alouette II. I was operating in a dangerous area; I was armed, and I had to perform my tasks very quickly with my very restricted maintenance team to make the helicopters as operational as it could be.

Looking back at where I started to where I am now, and I am still continuing the travel, I see the difference between peace time and war time and between only dreaming and work to take it into realization. During peace time, I started at the Maintenance Squadron at the age of 21, inexperienced and quite intimidated in a male dominated field. That is where my challenges really started. I had to assert myself and most importantly, be confident because if I didn’t, no one else would support me. I had the knowledge, and in science, younger generations are always trustful because they are updated on the best practices. At that time, people were reluctant to listen to me, stereotypes about women, young women, women in the military, and women in science emerged and I had to fight them alone. I can’t count how many times I have been called “baby’, not in a sweet way but a rude one. I still remember people telling me that they have daughters of my age and that they do not have to follow any orders me. Some people just took pleasure in irritating me or getting on my nerves every day, hoping that I would crack and make a mistake or worse, give up. One day, I literally had to deal with someone who just told me in the eyes that women do not have their place in the maintenance field, and even less in the military. Those are the reasons I wake up every morning. Those are my “WHY”. They helped me to state a purpose for my life. Since that day, I made my mind up to work every single day of my life as the most important one. I discovered the culture of excellence and made it mine. I knew that my success would not be mine alone and neither would my failures. Even if at the beginning, I did not take into consideration all those difficulties and challenges, I am now proud to serve the cause of gender equality in Madagascar. My biggest advantage was that I have been through military training that has taught me that “attitude is everything”. By showing a very tough and positive attitude all the time, even when the time gets hard because I was outnumbered and new in my position, I gained their trust. Thanks to that newly established trust, I have been able, in peace and war time, to collaborate efficiently with my squadron, some subordinates from different squadrons as well as my commanders to achieve a common goal.

In a nutshell, I would say that it has been a long way so far and I am probably not done with that fight. In my opinion, it is important that Malagasy people learn the difference between being conservative and being narrow-minded and anti-progress. Believing that women are not entitled to work in science is hindering progress and a shame. Women are powerful and Malagasy women in particular are very talented and achieve great things whenever they are given the opportunity. I could talk about some fellows that I have known personally who are now such an icon in their own domains, but I will probably be running out of ink and papers considering how profuse they are. They have inspired me. My mum and lots of women scientists have inspired me. One of them is Grace Hopper, a US Navy Admiral and inventor of the first compiler for computer languages, who stated “Humans are allergic to change. They love to say, “We’ve always done it this way.” I try to fight that. That’s why I have a clock on my wall that runs counter-clockwise.” So, in a Grace Hopper way, my counter-clockwise clock was my choice to become an aircraft maintainer in the military and within an Air Force that has never admitted any woman into its midst before.