Women of West Point

Brave Heart

The heart of a hero is the essence that drive a person to join the jihadis or serve the army. For women jihadis, "potential recruits are told their main role in the Islamic revolution will be through matrimony and childbearing, not martyrdom," [Daily Beast, 3 Sep 2014]. In contrast the American military will be opening combat positions to qualifying women by 2016.

Admission of Women

Since West Point opened its doors to women in 1976, there had been some women with outstanding achievements. Lindsey Danilack was the the top cadet at West Point, Class of 2014. She was not the first women to hold this position but the fourth. This article on New York Time Magazine takes a peek into the aspiration of the Women at West Point.

Leadership

Women had long been in position of leadership in both political and commercial arena. “If someone tells me I can’t run as fast as the guys running the two-mile, I say, ‘You’re right.’ ... But if they say that I can’t be as good a leader as them, oh, I’ll challenge them on that,” Danilack said.

Physical Fights

According to biologically, males are suppose to be stronger than women so I had always wonder about a physical fight between the genders. This was answered by Cadet Oriana Ellis. She said, “I always came in here with the mind-set that anything a guy could do, I could do. . . . I never really got the mental check until combative, when I had to fight a guy that was the same weight as me, and my M.C.L. was sprained within the first couple seconds, because I didn’t realize that guys were actually more dense than girls.”

Expressing Affection

As much as woman strive for equality, the law of nature that the opposite attracts could not be ignored. Here is a glimpse on romantic life at West point. “When you go into someone’s room, you have to leave the door open because you’re always being monitored. It’s hard to ‘cadate.’ There’s no hand-holding, no affection and no getting away. . . . West Point does discourage dating in the same company,” Alexandra Efaw said.

Bonding

Bonding is paramount for the military. Without esprit de corps any military group will breakdown. “What I like most about West Point is the relationships you make here because of what you go through and how stressful it is. A week is like a month in real life. . . . We have this unique experience that we’re all sharing with each other, which is why a lot of the people get engaged and married at West Point. And they might not even be dating for a year,” Anastasia Efaw said.