Women In The Military

Women have indeed served alongside men in the military since war began. One such historical female warrior of note is the Chiricahua Apache warrior Lozen. She was born in the 1840’s, and was the sister of the famed Apache warrior leader Victorio (Black Powder/ Red Power Midia, n.d.). She was celebrated as not only a warrior, but also as a medicine women; it is said that she could hold her hand in the air and tell the location and number of enemy troops. She is also remembered as a great hero to her people often noted for helping the women and children as the Apache retreated from the US Calvary in the 1870’s. Lozen embodied many traits that westerners would identify as masculine, but this was actually common in Apaches culture as taught

Many filled in as medical attendants in the both the Army and Navy Nurse Corps. Others served in all branches of the military. On the home front, ladies worked in processing plants building boats, tanks, and planes; others upheld war bond drives, raised triumph cultivates, and helped with scrap drives.

In 1916, conscription was introduced; all able-bodied men were enlisted in the army. This made the need for women workers urgent. Some women went overseas to serve as nurses in the war. If they were not nurses, they were recruited to work in areas that were formerly reserved for men. The majority of women worked in factories to produce weapons.

During the Revolutionary War, many women supported the war effort primarily in quartermaster roles working as cooks, laundresses, and nurses. Deborah Sampson impersonated a man of over a year in General Washington’s Colonial Army. She

With a yet another big war in full swing, women had their own branches of the armed forces. American people, both men and women, signed up for the armed forces by hundreds of thousands. The first and largest division was the Women’s Army Corps (WAC). Approximately 140,000 women had a

From Continental Army Soldier Deborah Samson to Army Sergeant Leigh Ann Hester, American ladies have been serving in the U.S. Military for several years. Women have been a piece of the war exertion since the Revolutionary War, yet in the beginning of our country they needed to mask themselves to serve alongside men. When they were acknowledged into the military, ladies were given helper or supportive parts. As the weapons and strategies for fighting changed in the late 20th century, in any case, the Pentagon started to soon understand that whether you were female or male; it mattered less on the combat zone.

Women in point of fact, have been serving their country since it began - Molly Pitcher fired her cannon in 1778 without congressional sanction. In the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, women fought disguised as men. In World War One. their medical services were indispensable. During the crises of World War Two, when women were

Nurses were very key in the war especially in World War Two. The numbers and the role of the nurses during World War Two became more important than ever. At the beginning of the war there was a large shortage of nurses to help with less than seven thousand volunteering. More women began to join, but not just anyone could serve. The women had to meet certain standards. To serve a woman had to be a citizen of the U.S, a registered nurse, and between the ages of 21 and 40. She also had to be checkout by the military to make sure she was healthy enough. She also couldn’t have children that were under the age of 14. During other wars women didn’t have any training, but this changed when 1943 rolled around. From that point nurses had to go through training on sanitation, psychiatry, and even physical training to make sure they could survive the tough conditions. Nurses also had to put up medical facilities if they needed to. Women had to go through all of this training because, they began to work closer to the front lines than they had ever had to before. The nurses were so close to fighting that they had to be able to come up with solutions fast and make decisions that could save or take a life. Nurses also had to learn how to use guns in case the time arose that they needed them. During the war some of the nurses wanted to go farther than just being a field nurse, so they would go to extra training to become flight nurses. Because nurses were so close to the front lines, and they had extra training, they were better able to serve their country and their soldiers when they need help (“Nursing and Medicine During World War

In 1942 the Women’s Army Corps was introduced. These women worked in more than 200 non- combatant jobs stateside and also every part of the war. They served not only as common nurses but also “within the ranks of the United States Army.” There was also the Women’s Army Corps introduced in 1942. This group of 1,100 women was asked to join and fly military aircraft, due to the shortage of pilots. Their job was to fly from factories to military bases and also different take off points around the country. Even though during their enlistment the WASP were supposed to become part of the military, after a couple years the program was cancelled. The last group the, Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, was already established. After being absent for twenty-three years, they had to be reactivated because of WW2. While a large portion of these women did the job of secretarial and clerical they had other jobs they did. Thousands of WAVES performed duties in aviation, medical professions, communication, intelligence, science and technology. These military jobs and the other non-traditional jobs the women participated in made them almost like a ghost in their home front.

     “May 22, 1942, will surely go down on the record,” predicted the Christian Science Monitor. “It was the day that women joined up with the army...” It was obvious; the U.S. needed a larger military force. Thus women joined the army within organizations. From there came Oveta Culp Hobby, the director for the first American military organization of women. This organization was called the WAAC (Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps). Many people were impressed by the strength of the WAAC and it is said that within three months, the AAF was discussing the possibilities of obtaining more members of the WAAC (Weatherford, p.34).

During World War I (1914-1918) a massive number of women joined the armed forces in hopes of being able to serve their country and those in need. There was a high demand for nurses to attend injured soldiers, and as a result from that women wanted to join the armed forces knowing that while the men were treated for their injuries they too could help out their country if permitted. Furthermore, women had to take on the jobs left by all of the men that went to war. Opening the possibilities of women to keep working even after the war is over, creating the employment rate to go higher. Some women had to go back to what they were doing before but a majority of women were able to keep working alongside men. Their wage was a lot less than men but

One of those men was called the knight hospitalers, which is where the word hospital originated. During the civil war, “Although we only hear about the predominantly female Union Volunteer nurses, the confederate army assigned 30 men in each regiment to take care for the injured. This could have been the start to the modern combat today” says Lucas. He continues to explain that military nursing was predominantly male until the turn of the century when female nursing schools organized their annual meeting in New York City and excluded men from nursing in the military. Hence forth only women were allowed to serve as nurses in the Army Nurse Corps, which was formed in 1901. Lucas proclaims that it was not until after the Korean War, that men began flowing back into the military’s nursing program.

Margaret Corbin is only one of many women who astounded society and would change the face of the military forever. During the times before women were allowed to enlist as soldiers, many women took the issue into their own hands, disguising themselves as men and enlisting in the military under false pretenses. Deborah Sampson was one of the women who participated in this trend. Sampson was enlisted in General Washington’s army and proved to be quite competent and an asset to her fellow soldiers. Deborah Sampson’s true identity was discovered shortly after she was wounded in battle. Despite her actions being illegal, Sampson received an honorable discharge as well as military pension for her duties (Time Line: Women in the U.S. Military).

One study (Binkin & Bach) found that many NATO and several WARSAW PACT countries employed women in combat roles during World War II. Russia was reported as using military women on the front lines. In Israel, where they are actually conscripted, women have also experienced armed combat. (Binkin & Bach) found that in the first phase of Israel’s war of Liberation, one out of every five soldiers was female and they shared equality in both offensive and defensive battle situations. Holm found that some 7,500 military women served in S.E. Asia during the Vietnam War. She maintains that these women proved the modern American military woman is fully capable of functioning effectively in a military role in a combat environment, even under direct hostile fire.

Women have been participating in the United States military since the Revolutionary War, where they were nurses, maids, cooks and even spies. They played vital roles in order to keep those fighting on the front lines healthier, and even a more important role in keeping commanding officers informed with private information stolen from the other side. Although the Revolutionary War took play in 1776, the first law to be passed that permanently stated that women have an official place in the military was in 1948, almost one hundred and seventy-two years later. Since that time there has been a lack of true growth when it comes to integration of females in the military. In 1994, a law was passed that tried to prohibit women from being assigned to ground combat units below the brigade level. Women are excluded from more then 25% of active combat roles within the military and only in 2013 was the ban lifted which was the final barrier to allowing women into all active roles. This has been a huge step in the direction for women being considered as being equal but there are still challenges that women face within the military. Ranging from sexual assault, discrimination, bullying, and other tactics, it is clear that for many, the military is still a “boys club.”