Beyond the Glass Ceiling
DIVERSITY: Are you a part of the solution?
We sat down with Major Helen Mammino, Officer Commanding 171st Special Operations Aviation Squadron, Australian Army to ask her a few questions about her diversity journey.
Like many others working within Defence, I am driven by tangible outputs and contributing to the Defence of our nation - a vocation I strongly believe in. Serving my country through the Australian Army as a special operations aircraft captain is a great honour and one I don’t take lightly; delivering a capability that plays a significant role in the protection of all Australian’s against threat is a privilege. Serving and commanding the personnel alongside me is humbling and without exception, the most rewarding and greatest professional achievement to date.
The path to this career was certainly not without challenges but then I don’t believe anything in life that is worth doing is ever meant to be easy. Accepting those challenges and growing from them has increased my resilience and provided me with the tools I need to achieve goals and milestones along the way. The most challenging personal aspect of my work is living 300kms away from my husband and our beautiful eight year old daughter. My husband is also an Army officer and when faced with being separated for the duration of this posting we made the decision, as a family, as to how it was going to work.. In doing so, I believe I have demonstrated to my daughter a real example of breaking the glass ceiling and although it comes at a sacrifice, she sees her Mum’s professional contribution as equally as important as her Dads. As a team, we offer each other mutual support and love to make it work. Despite this, I am very much looking forward to being reunited with them next year.
There is certainly a larger percentage of men than women in my workplace. The work we do relies on every individual’s professional skill, commitment to task and giving it their best. The professional standards and commitment of the women I work with have automatically earned them the respect and credibility by all who work alongside them - negating the need to raise the issue of acceptance of women in the workplace.
I have a number of role models from whom I draw upon for inspiration but I am inspired each and every day by observing the professionalism of the men and women of my small organisation. Their sense of purpose and enthusiasm to strive for excellence in everything they do inspires me to keep doing what I’m doing. The collective strength and drive of the men and women working together in this team gives me confidence that Army Aviation is in safe hands for the years to come.
