A woman has broken through the glass ceiling of a high-flying profession in Zimbabwe: the air force. Ellen Chiweshe, whose title was group captain, has been promoted to become the southern African country’s first female Air Commodore, the No. 3 post in the air force.
The state-run Herald newspaper reported Chiweshe’s new rank in Tuesday’s edition, which included a photograph of Air Force commander Perrance Shiri fitting a hat onto her head as part of a promotion ceremony.
The newspaper quotes Chiweshe as saying: “It was a man’s world and it was difficult to break in.” Zimbabwe’s constitution, adopted in 2013, requires gender parity in all state institutions, though men remain dominant in top government and military jobs.