Female Pioneer at Citadel Graduates
Shannon Faulkner, who fought a legal battle to open the all-male military academy The Citadel to women, has graduated from a college 200 miles across the state and plans to become a teacher.
Faulkner earned a bachelor’s degree in secondary education of English this month at Anderson College, one of two schools she attended after dropping out of The Citadel.
Faulkner made national headlines when she sued The Citadel in 1993 seeking admission. She became the first female day student at the state-run military school in Charleston in January 1994, attending classes under a federal court order.
She started full military training in August 1995 but left after six days, citing the pressure of her long struggle and the isolation of being the only female cadet.
The Citadel dropped its all-male admissions policy in 1996, after a U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down the all-male policy at the state-funded Virginia Military Institute.
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