Wear elbow grease and lipstick!

by Lynsey Howell 6/19/20, adapted from a previous post of mine in 2017.

Author of Chick in the Cockpit, Erika Armstrong, says that women shouldn’t ‘lean-in’ but rather we should just stand up straight! This statement has been resonating with me since reading it on her website. We women are not men, and we shouldn’t have to go around beating our chest and grunting like men to prove that we are strong and capable. Although, for most of my life that is exactly what I have done.

My mountaineering father would harp on my sister and me to “Be Men!” as we would try to keep pace up the mountain with him. As our 7 year old arms would tire from paddling a canoe up stream. As we struggled putting on cold ski boots. As he taught us to change his backhoe tires. It wasn’t until we were a little older that we started to state the obvious, “But we aren’t men!” So then he started hollering “Be Women!” in a sturdy voice that still meant toughen up. And NO whining!

This mountain man was the strongest supporter of mine when I was learning to fly. When I called him during the middle of my commercial pilot license training, giving him all the reasons that I wanted to quit, he talked me out of it. When I called him in the bathroom after a charter flight because the jerk captain made me cry, it was also him who made me feel competent again. Be a woman! Be tough, no whining. And in business it is him again that helps me act like a man, no emotion, just the facts, I deserve a raise please.

Yes, we women are emotional, sensitive and sometimes we whine. In some areas it would behoove us to learn business traits from our wonderful counter parts. But I, I am a woman. And this makes me special in the cockpit for I have a certain relationship with my aircraft. I listen to the sound of my airplane and I can hear when the engine is running rough. I can feel when the props are out of sync. I proudly clean the oil of the engine cowling. I become one with this beastly machine because I am oh-so-touchy-feely. There is nothing overpowering about my control inputs. I can finesse a landing so smooth you’ll think we are still flying.

So yes! Be a woman! Be strong, stand up straight, be tough and be girly. Wear elbow grease and lipstick!