USD women find empowerment through ROTC

Amber Hansen and Cassie Donahoe are not typical female college students at the University of South Dakota.

They go to class every day just like other students, and they admit to having a hard time trying to balance their social lives with their school work. The only difference between them and the hundreds of other women on campus is that at least once a week they don the green camouflaged uniforms of soldiers in the United States Army.

Hansen, a first-year student, said she first decided to join the USD Reserve Officers’ Training Corps after meeting other cadets at the fall activities fair held last August.

“My brother is a ROTC scholar at the School of Mines. When I heard about the scholarship, I thought ‘You know what, I’ll try it,’ and I loved it,” Hansen said. “I think the camaraderie is my favorite thing. It’s definitely like one big family.”

Donahoe, a junior, said she joined the ROTC after high school.

“My dad was the recruiter here for ROTC, and he said something about how he didn’t know if I would be able to do it,” Donahoe said. “(He was) kind of egging me on I think in a way, but I took it as, ‘Oh, he doesn’t think I can do it,’ so I applied for a scholarship just to prove him wrong in a way.”

Of 27 contracted students, Hansen and Donahoe are two of the five women in the program at USD.

Captain Jerry Zevecke, a professor of military science at USD and the interim commanding officer of the ROTC, said there were four women in the ROTC last year and expects there to be more in the program next year.

“I have personally spoken with prospective students that are coming next year and seven out of the 10 who have contacted us have been female,” Zevecke said.

Zevecke said the only differences in treatment of women versus males in the Army are the physical training requirements for the soldiers.

“The males have to do more push-ups in order to get 100 percent, and the males also have to run faster in order to get 100 percent. It’s years and years of research that the military has put into it, and it’s up to the experts and everything and then they came up with these standards,” Zevecke said.

Hansen said she has never felt like she has needed to prove herself to her male peers.

“They definitely push you to be the best you can be, but you never feel degraded. There’s no bias against you,” she said.

Donahoe said it can sometimes be hard to overcome preexisting stereotypes about women in the military.

“I’m the only girl in the junior class, so I’m surrounded by guys. I feel like the cadre are very unbiased when it comes to that, which helps, but then I’m kind of the brunt of a lot of jokes because I am the only girl in my class,” Donahoe said. “It kind of empowers me to do better and to try harder, and hopefully in the end trying harder will stand out more than if I just accepted that stereotype that is put on me.”

Expanding Roles

Zevecke said the perception of women in the military has changed drastically since he first joined the Army in 1990. 

“I went into the infantry — obviously that’s one of the branches that has been opened up to women recently. Back then we couldn’t even have female guests in our barracks,” he said.

Now, almost 25 years later, women are entering into combat roles. In 2013 former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta signed a document to allow women into the traditionally male dominated roles such as the infantry, artillery and armor. According to the Army, more than 33,000 positions previously closed to women have been opened.

Zevecke said all cadets in the ROTC are treated equally. While he has never seen sexism in the ROTC, Zevecke said he has encountered it at previous posts.

“As with any large organization, where you have all of the different cultures, you’re going to have the biases and the stuff that individuals bring with them based on what they learned at home,” he said. “The Army goes to great lengths through various training to make sure each soldier is aware of the Army Values and the Army Ethics so that they can help them fight against the sexism and all of the other negative aspects that the individuals bring with them.”

Zevecke said USD’s ROTC will soon be led by a woman. Lieutenant Colonel Michelle Bunkers, an alumna of USD, will arrive on campus next year to take charge of the program.

“She is going to transition from where she is now, she’s going to go through Fort Knox and go through the training she needs to become a PMS (professor of military science) and then she’ll be here at the beginning of the year,” Zevecke said.

As for Donahoe, she said she does not plan on seeking a direct combat role, but said if she wasn’t planning on going into the medical field she would.

“It would be just another challenge you would have in your life, something you can conquer. I think it would be really cool to be one of the first female infantry to just inspire other people to do it,” Donahoe said.

Hansen said she is also not personally interested in a direct combat role, but supports the Army’s decision to allow women into previously closed roles. She said it is important for women to be physically and mentally prepared for the position.

“President Obama said once, ‘Valor knows no gender,'” Hansen said. “You don’t have to be male to be courageous. There’s something in everybody that has the potential to do a heroic thing.”

(Photo: First-year ROTC cadet Amber Hansen prepares to move into position en-route to an objective during a ROTC training exercise March 28. Malachi Petersen / The Volante)