Breaking Out: VMI and the Coming of Women

by Laura Brodie and Laura Fairchild Brodie

Book Overview

On July 26, 1996, the United States Supreme Court nullified the single-sex admissions policy of the Virginia Military Institute, the last all-male military college in America. Capturing the voices of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375705813
• ISBN13: 9780375705816
• Release Date: May 2001
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Great book.

Brodie's book is perhaps the best written and most well researched work on the admission of women into both VMI and any US Service Academy or formerly all-male military academy yet. I credit Brodie with this success for two reasons: First, Brodie has a unique perspective on the behind-the-scenes proccesses involved with assimilation of women as she worked on them. Secondly, the book is a good length--long enough to be detailed, but short enough to be free from erroneous details. The majority of the book I think is objective. There are only two or three instances in the book that feel a little "feminist" but that is okay with me. It is hard to write a good book about what VMI actually IS without actually having to deal with being an actual cadet at the school at some point or another. Without actually having been a cadet, Brodie describes the school process and "politics" beautifully. To be sure, VMI was the last all-male school to admit women, a point of pride to many at the Institute, however, most books on other schools that I've read, like the Citadel or USNA, are from an early female-cadet's perspective. Brodie's book is one of simultaneously outside AND inside perspective. She has the unique perspective to write on the process toward admitting women and witnessing the triumphs and tragedies of the initial classes, but she is also separated from the politics and bias of actually dealing with being one of those first female cadets. Though she mentions some quotes from Ruth Bader Ginsberg's majority opinion on the case, it would also be interesting to supplement this reading with Justice Scalia's complete dissenting opinion in the VMI Case which is found in Scalia Dissents: Writings of the Supreme Court's Wittiest, Most Outspoken Justice pp 194-232.

Breaking Out

Ms. Brodie's handing of a very sensitive subject among VMI alumni was done as well as anyone possibly could have done it. It was written by one who was an "insider" at the Institute, which is imperative in being able to tell this story with a historical perspective. The only way it could have been done better would have been by a graduate - one who could write as clearly as Ms. Brodie does, which is one of it's greatest attributes.I bought this book at VMI right after it was published and have read it twice, and plan to read it again many times. As a grad, I approached it with an eye open for errors and any misrepresentation of VMI tradition, and I found remarkably little of either. She did a fantastic job covering both sides of the assimilation issue. The fact that she had the backing of the Superintendent, Si Bunting, is proof enough of quality of her work. As Si's brother rat, I know him pretty well, and feel he would have balked on this work big time if he had any misgivings concerning the outcome. I have not talked to him about it, but feel certain that he would agree with the superior rating I give it. Every VMI grad should waste no time acquiring a copy and reading it, and expecting a great experience in doing so. I can't wait for Ms. Brodie's followup which I hope will pick up where this one left off. Great Work!!

Page Turner

In Breaking Out, Laura Brodie has arranged an unlikely marriage between a can't put-it-down, page-turner of a yarn and an insider's account of a significant cultural battle of late 20th century America. Anyone who watched fascinated as Shannon Faulkner tried and failed at The Citadel will want to read this book. Brodie explains so much that is mysterious to the outsider, starting with the seemingly most intractable question: why would anyone, let alone a woman, want to endure the rigors of a Southern military academy. More importantly, Brodie shows why integration was necessary (culturally, not legally) and with insight that extends far beyond the limited venue of VMI sheds light on evolving gender norms and stereotypes in the post-feminist era. For example, in an amusing chapter discussing VMI's soul-searching over whether to allow women rats to shower in private stalls rather than in the traditional communal shower the male rates endure, Brodie illuminates the ignorance each sex has as to the other's most basic behaviours. This book is significant to anyone interested in gender politics in American, but more importantly it's fun.

In the finest tradition of New Market!

This fine book should appeal to two audiences. #1-Those people interested in VMI, and #2-those more interested in "process". VMI's response to court-ordered assimilation of women into the last male military bastion in America makes fascinating reading. In either case, you have to get by what most be one of the most bizzare covers in the world. At best, it is a clumsy victory of form over substance, and at worse a small-minded negative comment on a very positive book. e.g. Blades of bayonets have been airbrushed out, but the hilts remain on the ends of the rifles! Talk about symbolism! And reminding one of the distress sign of the flag flying upside down, the cover photo is printed reversed, so that the cadets seem to be from "IMV". Cover aside, Dr. Brodie has given a day-by-day account of women coming to VMI, beginning with the court decision: Uniforms, quarters, showers, feminine hygene, physical-education standards, dating policies, recruiting... absolutely no subject is sacred. The behind-the-scenes hero is the superintendant, General Bunting - certainly the right person at the right time.. But the real heroes are the men and women of the cadet corps who "made it work." Most people who live outside of Virginia and who are not Civil War buffs don't realize that the defining moment of VMI came that terrible May afternoon in 1864 at the battle of New Market. Worn down by superior Union forces after hours of fighting, General John C. Breckinridge, CSA gave the command "Put the boys in, and may God forgive me for the order." The cadet corps, many only 14 years old, marched into the fire of the Federal artillery and carried the day. BREAKING OUT is a contemporary reminder that it is the spirit of the men and now women cadets of Virginia Military Institute who can be counted on to carry the day.

Brodie Tells It Like It Was

From her Melvillian first sentence, "I am the band director's wife", to her final musings about the second and third years and on, Laura Brodie spins a fascinating web of anecdotes and analysis which give the reader a unique insight into the triumphs and traumas of taking a 158-year history of single-sex education and adjusting it through "minimal change" to accomodate the entrance of women into the VMI Corps of Cadets. As a participant in the process, I can vouch for the accuracy of her writing, and the fairness of her analysis. I am also fascinated by her skill as a story-teller. "Breaking Out" does not read like a dry, scholar's research paper, but like a novelist's finest creation. You won't be sorry you read it, and you will learn volumes about how and why VMI took its time with this tortuous process, determined to accomplish their unwanted mission with dignity and grace, while insuring that the immutable values of VMI were left unchanged. But Brodie is no shill for the VMI Administration ... the portrait would please Cromwell, for it shows VMI warts and all. One egregious error greets the reader when the book is first handled. The cover dust-jacket photo has somehow had the negative reversed (the VMI cap shields read "IMV," and a VMI alumnus will note that everything is backwards from rifle position to orientation of breastplate to location of bayonet scabbard (why in the WORLD did the publisher crop the blades of the bayonets ? ) to academic stripe on wrong sleeve. Please fix this on next printing, Mr. Publisher, so we who have bought copies in this printing will have collector's items !