The woman appointed as the Australian Defence Force's inaugural Space Commander has spoken of the bullying she endured when she first enlisted in the military.
Air Vice-Marshal Cath Roberts this year took charge of the newly formed Defence Space Command, an organisation that includes Air Force, Navy and Army personnel, based in Canberra.
Speaking to the ANU Women in National Security podcast, the senior officer has reflected on how in her early ADF career, she was forced to dumb herself down to avoid criticism from men.
The Defence Space Commander has described the "horrendous" backlash she experienced in a statistics class after receiving the highest score for an exam.
"It was just like, obviously you cheated, or you copied or the lecturer just likes you because you're the girl in the class and they're giving you special consideration," she said.
"That really taught me about what sort of backlash you could get. I wanted to be good at my job and not stand out too much, although that was pretty hard because you stood out as a woman anyway."
During the candid podcast discussion with former Labor MP Gai Brodtmann, Air Vice-Marshal Roberts admits it's only been in the past "four or five years" she has felt comfortable "standing out" in the ADF.
"And I'm like, 'Yeah, no, I didn't, I know what I did and I know what I achieved'," the Space Commander added.
The trained engineers also outlined how male colleagues would often ignore her perspective in meetings and only recognise her point when it was brought up by other men.
"In some meetings, I could say something, and it will not be heard and so I have my trusted guys who will say it again and then I'll claim it," she said.
Asked about what stops some other women from enlisting, the Air Vice-Marshal referenced society's unconscious bias towards females in the military.
"There's a couple of barriers in terms of joining and it's not the women — it's their parents. It's their parents' view of what the defence force does," she said.
Last month Air Vice-Marshal Roberts conceded that Australia is lagging "far behind" in the space domain, while admitting China and Russia's ability to take out satellites "scares" her.
