The Courage to Take Command: Leadership Lessons from a Military Trailblazer

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OVERCOMING OBSTACLES

The Army had just started letting women in, so I knew I’d be something of a rarity when I departed for officer boot camp in the summer of 1975, right after my junior year in college. But I didn’t account for just how rare: There were 83 female cadets on a military base of 50,000 men, and as my father had warned me, many of the men were not prepared to sissify the Army with women. I was called every name in the book: bitch, butch, bimbo, and those were just the names beginning with the letter b.

Obstacles? Heck, yes. Showing my face on the first day was facing an obstacle. Boot camp is no picnic for anyone, but there was an extra dimension when I realized that some people didn’t want to “break us down to build us back up,” ...