THUNDER BAY - Cmdr. Michele Tessier said she struggles with a label like role model, but having risen in the ranks of the Royal Canadian Navy to become the commanding officer of HMCS Margaret Brooke, she hopes other women know that gender no longer determines who you can be or what you can become.
“Being told you are a role model is a difficult thing to hear, but my feeling on that is if I have the ability to encourage someone, or motivate someone to go after a dream that they thought perhaps was not possible, then I am happy to do that,” Tessier said.
Tessier was one of three guest speakers in the Women in Power panel discussion at Lakehead University on Monday. Hosted by the Lakehead University Political Science Association, the discussion was meant to provide women in positions of power in primarily male dominated fields to share their experiences with students.
“In positions that are normally male dominated fields, to have those voices heard on campus and have them share their experiences to students that are coming up and trying to fill those positions in those fields is very important to us,” said Josh Pogue, an executive with the Political Science Association.
The speakers included Tessier, the commanding officers of the Arctic Patrol Vessel HMCS Margaret Brooke, newly sworn-in Thunder Bay Police Service chief, Sylvie Hauth, and Thunder Bay city councillor and business owner, Shelby Ch’ng.
“I’m hoping the students can take inspiration away from it and realize that you don’t have to fall within these barriers in these fields and that anyone can go out and insert themselves into a male dominated field regardless of gender identity,” Pogue said.
“I remember being a student and looking at people who were more established and thinking that they somehow got a manual in university that told them what path to follow,” Ch’ng added. “So I think it’s really important to hear from people who are there that you find it along the way.”
Ch’ng shared her experiences of graduating university and working a job where she remembered continually “watching the clock.” Wanting to carve her own path, Ch’ng opened her own business, Unveiled Bridal Boutique, in 2012. In 2014, Ch’ng was elected to Thunder Bay city council in the Northwood ward.
“There are barriers for women,” Ch’ng said. “There are barriers for not only women, but people with disabilities, people of colour, so it’s important to continually talk about those barriers and break them down so we do have equal representation and opportunities for everyone.”
Tessier added that women today face less barriers than in the past and that people are realizing there is no difference between anyone.
“The things that you want, the person you want to become, the job you want to have, really the obstacles are the ones we put there for ourselves,” she said.
Having joined the Royal Canadian Navy in 1996 after graduating university, Tessier would go on to command four tours at sea between 2010 and 2013, as well as commanding HMCS Griffon in Thunder Bay. In 2017, Tessier received Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Award.
Tessier believes that there is no reason a person needs to consider gender, religion, or cultural background when working towards what he or she wants to become.
And just as she does not like the term role model, Tessier believes the spotlight shouldn’t shine on her alone because she sees her accomplishments on equal grounds as anyone else’s, man or woman, and she believes more people are seeing the world in that light.
“It’s great to highlight what women are achieving because equality is obviously what we want,” she said. “But there’s a little bit of that in me where I feel I have done the same things my male counterparts have done, so they’ve been successful because they have done what I have done and I don’t really like to have more of the spotlight on me.”
