Because John Marsden is a great military tactician and an expert on defferentiated gender psyche's.
Ohh and haven't you read the series, in the last book Ellie freezes up and consequently Iain the kiwi soldier gets either captured or killed. So what was your point again?
Your such a relaxed and not up tight person aren't you? Very good to entertain a light conversation with.
If we're going to get into it however....So what if Ellie froze up? I didn't say that all women are super-freaky robots who retain total control in every situation. Staying purely in the confines of the series, there are many situations where the male characters also make similar mistakes in the field, Kevin being a notable example.
Our school does this thing where all the grade twelves have to walk 80ks in a twenty four hour period (through the bush). Many of the "tough" guys who you would think would thrive in such a challenging endeavour ended up down the back of the line whinging their heads off at 4AM, whilst many girls of average fitness and less of the sporty guys spent their time striding away up the front, encouraging others.
This obviously lacks relevance because none of us were under pressure to kill anyone or protect the nation (much), but I thought it was an interesting real life example of how unexpected people flourish in arduous situations.