Imagine this.....
you wake up one morning and discover life is not what you thought it was.
Half of all high school students are forbidden from even applying to the Naval Academy. They can't even do the preliminary application. Can't apply for a Congressional Nomination. It's not that any of them are not qualified. It is simply because of the circumstances of their birth - their gender.
But no one notices, for decades. USNA and West Point, they have applicants; plenty of them. They are filling classes with good students who wish to be groomed into military officers. Suddenly - the social strata changes; seemingly overnight. There was first the whisper. Then the buzz. The naysayers said it would never happen. Some said it might happen but it surely would never work.
In the Fall of 1975 Congress issued the decree. Four Service Academies would be REQUIRED to admit women (USMMA had already begun admitting women).
Nearly overnight Admissions had to act. Not only were they required to accept applications; they were required to actually admit females.
At that time few high school women had access to athletics. Some suspected the female body would not be able to stand up to the physical expectations of a service academy. They were smaller, slower and weaker. High school women had fewer opportunities to take advance math courses in high school. Where Calculus was found; few women were encouraged. Women had significantly lower Math SAT's than the men. Many thought the math required would be too difficult for the female brain. Few women were encouraged to take math and science and fewer encouraged to become engineers.
The good ole' boys were insulted. Women would 'weaken' the program and put our National Security at risk. They simply could not imagine any female high school senior wanting to apply, much less actually graduating. But the Law prevailed. The Service Academies thought about this major transition and decided to do it well and enable females to succeed and graduate.
The "politically correct" of the day figured they needed a certain number of women to make the transition successful. Admitting just a 'token' few would not work.
The next fall nearly 120 women were admitted to West Point and 81 were admitted to the Naval Academy. These women were carefully selected scholars and athletes but the men were furious. They were taking the place of another well qualified male.
Can you believe it? When women were admitted - they, through no fault of their own, had less scholastic, athletic and leadership opportunities than their male peers. Yet, today most would argue that this great 'social experiment' worked. Sounds vaguely familiar..........
Those of you who are younger than 50 may think I am exaggerating, but I assure you; I am not. Not even a little.