Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 17, 1995 TAG: 9509150107
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: F5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SERGE F. KOVALESKI THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Nearly 800 miles to the west in Kansas City, Mo., women in a local militia help run a ``cadet'' program that teaches children about the Founding Fathers and such survival tactics as map-reading, first aid and dehydrating food.
When the Justice Department subpoenaed Alabama's Gadsden Minutemen in July, seeking the videotape that generated controversy over the racist Good Ol' Boys law-enforcement gathering, a half-dozen female members were ready to take up arms if federal agents tried to take it.
Although citizen militias and other like-minded groups are male-dominated, women are increasingly active and in a few cases, taking on leadership roles. One of the first clarion calls for the formation of modern-day militias came from Eva Vail, a longtime right-wing activist, following the 1992 siege at Ruby Ridge, Idaho.
Driven by the same distrust of the federal government and reverence for the Constitution that have galvanized men to form militias, women are joining these causes while dealing with careers and parenting demands.
Some are merely following their husbands into militia service; others say they are getting involved because of their own beliefs that constitutional abuses must be curbed.
They also identify with the emphasis many of the groups place on conservative family values, including their opposition to abortion, gay rights and the feminist movement, and their advocacy of home-schooling.
Some women in militias worry that their children will have fewer rights and liberties unless paramilitary entities put a check on governmental encroachment.
Other women have found a sense of purpose in groups that espouse white-supremacist dogma. The Aryan Women's League in Fallbrook, Calif., sponsors whites-only baby-clothes drives, runs a program called ``Operation White Nurse'' in preparation for an apocalyptic race war and raises funds by selling an ``Aryan Cookbook.''
Hate-watchdog organizations estimate that women account for 10 percent to 20 percent of the nation's militia membership, which the Anti-Defamation League puts at about 15,000 people in at least 40 states.
Thousands of other individuals sympathize with paramilitary groups. The United States Militia Association in Blackfoot, Idaho, says that one out of every three of its 1,500 members around the country are women.
Militia members contend that the presence of women and other minorities within their ranks, including some black Americans, proves that their organizations have a broader appeal than just to so-called angry white men who are obsessed with guns and exist on the political fringe.
``The public has been misled into believing that there is just a Bubba mentality in the militia movement,'' said Kay Sheil, lieutenant colonel of the headquarters company of the Missouri 51st Militia in Kansas City. ``If you take a hard look at militias, you will see a concern about the constitutional republic that cuts across gender.''
Female militia members include housewives, bankers, store clerks and disc jockeys, and the niches they have carved out in their groups are varied. They write newsletters, dispatch news reports on the Internet, network over phones and fax machines and attend community meetings.
by CNB