ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, July 5, 1996 TAG: 9607050018
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: S.D. SMITH
WE VIRGINIANS, steeped in historical tradition, run toward change in cement shoes. Case in point: recent efforts to keep the Virginia Military Institute the all-male bastion it has been since its beginnings in 1839.
Regarding VMI historically, Virginians place great honor on the Battle of New Market where 10 VMI cadets lost their lives and another 47 were wounded. We are proud of Thomas Jonathan Jackson, the institute's most distinguished professor, who, through successful battlefield performance, became the honored Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson, a famous Virginian.
Many have gladly relegated their sons to the distinguished rigor of that institution. Many a mother over the years has publicly swooned over how handsome her son looked in uniform, and privately patted herself on the back for having contributed one more fine young man to the chivalrous cause. Proud fathers have been fulfilled that the boy, having endured, had become part of that continuous historical flow of VMI military men.
Yes, we have been proud of its all-male status. It always was so.
Enter 1996. Women no longer wait in the wings for ``When Johnny comes marching home'' as they historically did. They're taking part in the world. Modern economics demands that women be self-supporting, if not totally independent, and at the very least contributing. Don't we loathe the picture of welfare, a woman at home, while the working world pays?
The U.S. military is a huge employer with good benefits. A proven military education can well be Step No. 1 toward breaking through the glass ceiling. And when it comes to a military education, the Virginia Women's Institute for Leadership at Mary Baldwin College isn't equal to VMI.
We Virginians may swell with pride at our sons in uniform, but we also have daughters whose roles vary greatly now from historical precedent.
If our daughters are now required to be self-supporting, then we must quit throwing obstacles in their course - as we've done historically in denying education, barring them from certain professions and paying them less than men for the same work.
Removing the barrier against females at VMI, however painful for us longing for tradition, is one more step toward equality for women. Women cannot make changes to improve their lives, cannot compete, cannot run a race in concrete shoes.
S.D. Smith of Roanoke County is a volunteer for a nonprofit organization and a free-lance writer.
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