For thousands of years the female "dreadlords" are recruited among the sisters (in the Westlands, at least - we can't be sure the Windfinders's little stunt of pretending to be weak and sending their rare "most talented" recruits to the Tower fooled the Shadow, or that there's no DF among the Aiel WO. The Shadow doesn't seem to have bothered with DF among the damane either - useless because enslaved - and even among the sul'dam they're apparently rare). The Light's channellers obviously worry the Forsaken and the DO far less than they do the readers. Ishamael infiltrated the Tower with the BA, and one might wonder if it's really their channelling ability that attracted him or the power and influence of the WT he wanted to undermine over the centuries, while at the same time it gave BA a lot of status/authority most DF don't have.


The Kin recruits among fallen novices and Accepted and their real nature wasn't known to the BA after 2000 years of existence, which makes it very unlikely there are DF in there, which in turn means the Black Ajah has never bothered with women put out of the Tower, and Ishamael has never seen the point in forcing them to.

Sheriam had last word on putting Else Grinwell out of the Tower or not. Obviously, if she was BA material, Sheriam would have made sure to keep her around and shape her so she passed the Accepted test and made the shawl one day (she had enough ability, but not the proper personality). So Else was of no interest to the BA, we have to conclude. The Shadow has little use for women who can't apply themselves to their training in the OP and are undisciplined.