Senior Military Colleges

VWIL - was the Commomwealth of Virginia's answer to refusing to allow women entrance to VMI.
The federal government took VMI to court - the supreme court and VMI lost.
VWIL was started in 1995 at Mary Baldwin and the cadets take ROTC through VMI's rotc program. They are also afforded the benefit of a senior military college in guaranteed active duty if they so choose.
In 1997, VMI became coed when they lost their case in the US Supreme court in a 7-1 ruling.
VWIL remains in existence today.
 
Right after that decision some guy made a fortune in bumper stickers that read:

Women at VMI!
What next, Men at Virginia?:shake:
 
Just_A_Mom said:
VWIL - was the Commomwealth of Virginia's answer to refusing to allow women entrance to VMI.
The federal government took VMI to court - the supreme court and VMI lost.
VWIL was started in 1995 at Mary Baldwin and the cadets take ROTC through VMI's rotc program. They are also afforded the benefit of a senior military college in guaranteed active duty if they so choose.
In 1997, VMI became coed when they lost their case in the US Supreme court in a 7-1 ruling.
VWIL remains in existence today.
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i just read that VWIL isn't like other cadet corps. that instead, of an adversative system as other cadet corps, they are based on cooperation and stuff like that. (http://www.bsos.umd.edu/gvpt/lpbr/subpages/reviews/strumvmi.html)

i am suspicious about how successful such training would make you as an officer in the armed forces. cooperation sounds all happy and great, but VWIL can't possibly say that this sort of officer training has been tested in the heat of battle! i wonder which armed forces in the world train their officers in a similar way as VWIL? :confused:
 
just read that VWIL isn't like other cadet corps. that instead, of an adversative system as other cadet corps, they are based on cooperation and stuff like that.
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What do you think the author of the book means by this? This actually was a "decision" made by a district court judge who went on to say that:
First, VMI's adversative method "was a uniquely successful way to produce leaders" (p. 173). Second, this method "was inappropriate for women and would be harmful to them" (p. 173). Third, "VMI would be harmed by the admission of women"-VMI would have to change
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Kinda sad to this that a successful way to produce leaders was ruled by a judge (male of course) to be harmful to women. Fortunately for you VMI lost.

Back to "adversarial" vs. "cooperative" - what comes to my mind is The United States Military Academy at West Point.... their changes over the years have moved in the direction from adversarial to cooperative.


As she points out "the VMI case was not really about women in the military," but "the self-proclaimed essence of VMI was and is an exaggerated form of training for combat, and until the idea that women could fight for their country gained popular credence, there was no lawsuit to get them admitted to the Institute"
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This logic was also used to oppose women from entering the US Service Academies - even if it had credence at one time it surely does not any more. While women are still prevented from being assigned to combat units they surely are serving in combat. It is just thinly disguised.
 
I think that VMINROTC kind of ignited an old argument here- a land mine I won't walk into. But every place has its niche and VWIL clearly must be filling one as they have survived more than 10 years after my AlmaMater VMI went coed. There are zillions of civilian ROTC programs that are commissioning cadets with a "nonadversarial" approach and they seem to be doing ok- and you will find that the maritime colleges are essentially disciplined with the same philosophy so there is certainly nothing particularly unusual in this kind of "regimentation without screaming" approach. I believe that VWIL has that approach in large part because the more confrontational approach doesn't have that much appeal to most women which doesn't make it any less valid an approach. Clearly not true across the board as the women at VMI seem to have fit in with no major show stoppers. (I'm sure that some disgruntled old grad will disagree based on some apocraphal story- but from what I can tell the place survived, didn't appreciably soften up and I suspect that it's a better school than it was 30 years ago).
 
My son's GF is at Mary Baldwin in the VWIL. Not everyone at MB is in the VWIL. She went in with no ROTC scholarship, but was offered one, she still trying to figure our if she wants to accept it. She is much more "military" than my son. They joked about it over Christmas break. Son is an AFROTC scholarship cadet.
 
justawife said:
She is much more "military" than my son.
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in what way? is it anything like girl scouts? i never did girl scouts. or is it military in a much more military way?

just curious. i think i still prefer the vmi system myself. i think it will be military enough for me! lol. :shake:
 
God I hope your kidding.

Military in the sense that they wear their uniforms to class everyday and go to class not riding bikes. They walk not quite marching but stiff. It basically is the same program as VMI, except run by women for women.

My Son wears his uniform on Thursdays and wears official PT gear on PT days. He rides he's bike to class on campus.
 
justawife said:
God I hope your kidding.

Military in the sense that they wear their uniforms to class everyday and go to class not riding bikes. They walk not quite marching but stiff. It basically is the same program as VMI, except run by women for women.

My Son wears his uniform on Thursdays and wears official PT gear on PT days. He rides he's bike to class on campus.
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i don't know if girl scouts lost popularity in my school, but i just don't have any friends that did it and i didn't do it. and not being a boy, i never did boy scouts. so besides the uniforms, i just really don't know much about boy and girl scouts at all. also, i heard about a girl and boy state thing, but never did that either.

in high school, i'm doing navy junior rotc. but not many people even know what that is, at least here in my school.

ok- sorry though. i could have guessed even not doing girl scouts that "military" is nothing like it. i guess it was a stupid thing to say. i can be a real dork sometimes- just having a brunette moment i guess. (now brain, let me introduce you to fingers!) lol. can i climb under a log now?

it's cool that vwil has the same program as vmi. i hadn't known that.
 
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