Born: 1975, United States
Died: NA
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women creator Allison Tyra’s book Uncredited: Women’s Overlooked, Misattributed, and Stolen Work.
Shannon Faulkner was seventeen when she applied to the American military college known as The Citadel. Knowing they only accepted males, she did not include her gender on her application and marked it out on her transcripts. Although she was accepted, the school reversed that decision upon finding out she was female. She sued for violation of her civil rights, as The Citadel was a public school that received state funding.
The court allowed her to attend classes, starting in January 1994, pending the outcome of the trial. After two years and three semesters, the court ruled in her favour and The Citadel was forced to admit her as a full cadet.
But the battle was far from over.
A month before she was to start, her family home was vandalised for the first time, which soon became a regular occurrence. Then the death threats started, in writing, via phone calls, and, once, a man grabbed Shannon at a grocery store and told her he would enjoy burning her house down with her parents inside. It wasn’t the last time he would threaten her.
“At one point in time, I thought I was going to die. I thought I was going to be the one that was going to be taken out, and I was willing to make that sacrifice,” she said in an interview. “But when it came to my friends and my family, they should not pay for my choices.”
On her first day at the school, August 15, 1995, a man threatened her while she was in formation. Already psychologically beaten down, she was no match for the infamous Hell Week in 100-degree heat. She couldn’t eat, suffered from nausea, and ended up in the infirmary before the day was over. There, she overheard a nurse scoff that she was faking. She lost fourteen pounds (6.4kg) over the next four days before she finally gave in and quit. So did five male cadets, but that fact was conveniently glossed over by the school and the media.
“I wasn’t living,” she said. “I was existing.”
She later became a teacher, then a Title 1 planner supporting low-income families. It took more than seven years to recover from the trauma of her experience. While she doesn’t take credit for the women who followed her, she does acknowledge her obvious contribution, and has stated that she considers herself a Citadel alumnus.