It’s been 25 years since the first female fighter pilots took to the skies, but only three women have followed in their path despite efforts to recruit and integrate more women into the military.

The long-term goal established in 2010 was to have 25.1 per cent of the Canadian Forces represented by women. Currently that number is about 14.8 per cent.

The Royal Canadian Air Force has the highest percentage of women, 19 per cent, of the three branches of the armed forces, according to statistics from January 2013.

Maj. Dee Brasseur was one of two women licensed to fly a CF-18 Hornet, the military’s fighter aircraft,  in January 1989. Some of her fellow pilots believed she wasn’t up for the task.

“People said ‘women can’t be pilots because they’re too emotional. Women aren’t smart enough,’” Brasseur said.

Since then, the Canadian Forces has attempted to address discrimination against women in the ranks by creating equal standards, such as for the basic recruitment fitness test.

The 30-year-old test was changed in April 2013 so that men and women have to meet the exact same physical requirements.

“In terms of women being accepted within the culture the standards have to be exactly the same, because anything that is different will be perceived as women being weaker,” said Karen Davis, the leading expert on women in the military at the Department of National Defence.

This policy is a direct contrast to the original intent of different physical fitness requirements for men and women.

“The original professed impetus behind having unequal fitness standards was to encourage women to join by making it easier to join,” said Victoria Tait, a doctoral candidate studying women in the military at Carleton University.

However this double standard meant women had to be exceptional in order to gain the respect of their peers.

Whether it was being excluded from Friday night beers or being unable to find a partner for nighttime training flights, Brasseur said she often felt left out.

Brasseur clearly remembers the night she finally proved herself to her fellow pilots.

“I remember it very well because I almost died,” she said.

Brasseur was out on a training flight with another instructor when the plane “almost exploded.” A bird flew into the aircraft’s one engine, causing it to completely fail and turn the plane into a glider. She safely piloted the glider back to base, and never had problems fitting in at Friday night beers again.

“When I walked into mess that Friday night, you could have heard a pin drop,” Brasseur said. “Over the course of the evening guys would come over and say ‘Oh yeah, pretty exciting flight there.’”

The military has also increased the visibility of women in its organization so that prospective recruits might be able to imagine themselves in the cockpit.

In the 1980s Brasseur was profiled in the media because she was unusual. The Canadian Forces now want women to think of being a fighter pilot as a possible career path.

“There’s a greater representation of women in media and recruitment ads to make it a more desirable occupation,” Tait said.

But despite these changes, fewer women are signing up. Women’s enrollment in basic training fell from 15.58 per cent of new recruits in 2008 to 12.67 per cent in 2011.

In August 2013 the Canadian Forces was subject to criticism when it announced it was adjusting recruitment targets, citing “unattainable” goals, for women, aboriginals and visible minorities.

Davis said the military does not have any current research on why women are not enlisting.

In 2013 Defence Research and Development Canada was tasked with reviewing recruitment numbers and studying the problem, she said.

But the reason might be fairly simple.

“It’s still seen as a masculine organization,” Tait said.

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This is a Department of National Defence audit published in November 2012 on recruitment and basic training. I found it because I read a National Post article from 2013 on the military missing its equity recruitment targets and I wanted to track down the original source, which I did by going to the DND audit archives on the DND website. It was helpful because it provided me with original statistics to verify the trend the pilots were showing — women aren’t becoming fighter pilots because they’re not enrolling in the military at all. (Click to view complete document.)

This is a backgrounder published by the Department of National Defence on women in the Canadian Forces. I was forwarded this link by the media liaison team at DND. It was helpful because it provided me with current statistics on the military as well as basic facts on the major milestones, such as Maj. Brasseur’s flight training graduations in 1981 and 1989. (Click to view complete document.)