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History

Women have been involved in the U.S. military since 1775, originally in the civilian fields of nursing, laundering, mending clothing and cooking.

Deborah Sampson was one of the first women to enlist while disguised as a man. She was unhappy with her limited role in the American Revolution. She served in a light infantry unit, fighting in many battles. Injuries put her in a hospital where her secret was discovered. Her commanding officer, General John Paterson, honorably discharged her and thanked her for her service.[1]

Several hundred women enlisted and fought in the US Civil War, generally disguised as men. In some cases their identity was discovered, typically on the battlefield or in hospitals after becoming wounded.[2]

In 1917 Loretta Walsh became the first woman to enlist as a woman. A 1948 law made women a permanent part of the military services. In 1976, the first group of women were admitted into a U.S. military academy.[3] Approximately 16% of the 2013 West Point class consisted of women.[4]

In 1990 and 1991, some 40,000 American military women were deployed during the Gulf War operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm; however, no women served in combat. A policy enacted in 1994 prohibited women from assignment to ground combat units below the brigade level.[5]

World War I

Main article: Women in World War I

Thousands of women served as nurses, cooks, laundresses and other support roles in the armies involved in World War I.[6]

Russia

The only nation to deploy female combat troops in substantial numbers was Russia. From the onset, female recruits either joined the military in disguise or were tacitly accepted by their units. The most prominent were a contingent of front-line light cavalry in a Cossack regiment commanded by a female colonel, Alexandra Kudasheva. Others included Maria Bochkareva, who was decorated three times and promoted to senior NCO rank, while The New York Times reported that a group of twelve schoolgirls from Moscow had enlisted together disguised as young men.[7] In 1917, the Provisional Government raised a number of "Women's Battalions", with Bochkareva given an officer's commission in command. They fought well, but failed to provide the propaganda value expected of them and were disbanded before the end of the year. In the later Russian Civil War, they fought both for the Bolsheviks (infantry) and the White Guard.[8]

Others

In Serbia, a few individual women played key military roles. Scottish doctor Elsie Ingles coordinated a retreat of approximately 8,000 Serbian troops through Romania and revolutionary Russia, up to Scandinavia and finally onto transport ships back to England .[9][10] Another woman, Milunka Savic, enlisted in the Serbian army in place of her brother. She fought throughout the war, becoming possibly the most decorated woman in military history.[11][12]

In the 1918 Finnish Civil War, more than 2,000 women fought in the Women's Red Guards.[13]

In the Spanish Civil War, thousands of women fought in mixed-gender combat and rearguard units, or as part of militias.[14][15]

  1. ^ "How Roles Have Changed for Women in the Military | Norwich Online Graduate Degrees". graduate.norwich.edu. Retrieved 2018-04-20.
  2. ^ Smith, Sam. "Female soldiers in the Civil War on the front line". www.civilwar.org. Retrieved 17 November 2017.
  3. ^ "Women in the military". Norfolk Daily News. 8 June 2013. Retrieved 2013-10-24.
  4. ^ Abramson, Larry (22 October 2013). "West Point Women: A Natural Pattern Or A Camouflage Ceiling?". NPR.org. Retrieved 17 November 2017.
  5. ^ Fischel, Justin (24 January 2013). "Military leaders lift ban on women in combat roles". Fox. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
  6. ^ "How Roles Have Changed for Women in the Military | Norwich Online Graduate Degrees". graduate.norwich.edu. Retrieved 2018-04-20.
  7. ^ Susan R. Sowers, Women Combatants in World War I: A Russian Case Study" (Strategy Research Project, U.S. Army War College, 2003) PDF
  8. ^ Reese, Roger R. (2000). The Soviet military experience: a history of the Soviet Army, 1917–1991. Routledge. p. 17.
  9. ^ "SAVED 8,000 SERBS, BUT DIED IN EFFORT: Heroic Work Of Dr. Elsie Ingles Told by Woman Just Here from the Front". New York Times. February 11, 1918.
  10. ^ "SERBIAN ARMY LED BY WOMAN: DRAMATIC RETREAT THROUGH RUSSIA". South China Morning Post. April 30, 1918.
  11. ^ "Milunka Savić the most awarded female combatant in the history of warfare". www.serbia.com. Retrieved 2018-08-16. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  12. ^ ОШИЋ МАЛЕШЕВИЋ, Никола (2016). "Review of: Милунка Савић – витез Карађорђеве звезде и Легије части". Tokovi istorije. 1: 223–267 – via CEEOL.
  13. ^ Lintunen, Tiina (2014). "Women at War". The Finnish Civil War 1918: History, Memory, Legacy. Leiden: Brill Publishers. pp. 201–229. ISBN 978-900-42436-6-8.
  14. ^ Lines, Lisa (May 2009). "Female combatants in the Spanish civil war: Milicianas on the front lines and in the rearguard" (PDF). Journal of International Women’s Studies. 10 (4): 168–187. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
  15. ^ Lines, Lisa (2011). Milicianas: Women in Combat in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). Plymouth, UK: Lexington Press. ISBN 978-0-7391-6492-1.
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