This revised edition of Maj. Gen Jeanne Holm's classic work on the history and role of women in the U.S. armed forces brings the reader up-to-date by covering the role of American military women in all post-Vietnam military operations -- including the recent Persian Gulf War. Just as important is her discussion of the changing role of women in the military during the 1980s and 1990s. Book jacket.
Women's participation in the U.S. Armed Forces has grown over time in response to the national need for their services. Throughout each era of American history, patriotic women volunteered to serve their country in a wide variety of official and unofficially sanctioned capacities. When there was a call to duty, the United States Armed Forces always relied upon women to be a part of the effort. This book provides information to enable students and scholars to understand the effect women have had on wars that have shaped the United States.
Women of the Military is a compilation of 28 stories of women who have started their path to military life, are currently serving, separated or retired. There are 4 stories from women in the process of joining, 14 stories from Air Force members, 8 stories from the Army, 1 from the Navy, and 1 from the Marine Corps. Women have served in the American military since as far back as the Revolutionary War. As years passed the role of women in the military has grown and changed. In 1948, women were allowed to serve in the US Military outside of war periods. During the Vietnam War, Cmd. Elizabeth Barrett was the first women to hold command in a combat zone. In 1976, the first woman attended a military academy. In 1998, female fighter pilots flew the first combat mission. And in 2016, after years of women serving in combat roles during Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) and Operation Iraqi Freedom, all jobs were open to women in the military. There is such a rich history of women serving in the military. And while at one point in time most women served in the role of a nurse. Today, women are a part of every job. The role of women expanding military wasn't by chance. Instead, it was from women proving over and over again that they were a valuable asset and could be used and relied on in the field of battle. How do we know what happened beyond the highlights written in history books? I wanted to answer these questions so I started a journey. A journey to hear the stories of military women. Today I host a podcast, Women of the Military, where I get to talk to women who have served in the military. But before the podcast, my interviews were back and forth on paper. I have put together these stories. Women who have served as far back as Vietnam and as current as those entering the military in 2018. Stories from women who have served in the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marines. If you've ever wondered what it's like to serve as a female in our military, you need to read this book.
From silents of the early American motion picture era through 21st century films, this book offers a decade-by-decade examination of portrayals of women in the military. The full range of genres is explored, along with films created by today's military women about their experiences. Laws regarding women in the service are analyzed, along with discussion of the challenges they have faced in the push for full participation and of the changing societal attitudes through the years.
This book investigates challenges to the U.S. military’s gender regime of hetero-male privilege. Examining a broad set of discursive maneuvers in a series of cases as focal points—integration of open homosexuality, the end of the combat ban on women, and the epidemic nature of military sexual assault within its units—Stephanie Szitanyi examines the contemporary link between gender and military service in the United States, and comprehensively analyzes forms of gendering produced by the military as an institution. Using feminist interpretivist methods to analyze an impressive combination of visual, textual, archival, and cultural materials, the book argues that despite policy changes since 2013 that may be positioned as explicit episodes of degendering, military officials have simultaneously moved to counteract them and reinforce the institution’s gender regime of hetero-male privilege. Importantly, these (re)gendering processes continue to prioritize certain forms of service and sacrifice, through which a specific version of masculinity—the masculine warrior—is continuously promoted, preserved, and cemented.
Women and Gender Perspectives in the Military compares the integration of women, gender perspectives, and the women, peace, and security agenda into the armed forces of eight countries plus NATO and United Nations peacekeeping operations. This book brings a much-needed crossnational analysis of how militaries have or have not improved gender balance, what has worked and what has not, and who have been the agents for change. The country cases examined are Sweden, the Netherlands, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, Australia, and South Africa. Despite increased opportunities for women in the militaries of many countries and wider recognition of the value of including gender perspectives to enhance operational effectiveness, progress has encountered roadblocks even nearly twenty years after United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 kicked off the women, peace, and security agenda. Robert Egnell, Mayesha Alam, and the contributors to this volume conclude that there is no single model for change that can be applied to every country, but the comparative findings reveal many policy-relevant lessons while advancing scholarship about women and gendered perspectives in the military.
1. A knife under my pillow -- 2. Choosing sides -- 3. The lionesses of Iraq -- 4. Afghanistan and the tragedy of biology -- 5. Pretending to integrate the military -- 6. Darkness before dawn -- 7. Individuals being all they can ... and more -- 8. A changing institution -- Conclusion. Civic feminism and the wars of the 21st century.
Over the past two decades of conflict, women have served with valor and continue to serve on combat aircraft, naval vessels, and in support of ground combat operations. The expansion of roles for women in the Armed Forces has evolved since the early days of the military when women were restricted by law and policy from serving in certain occupations and units. Women have not been precluded by law from serving in any military unit or occupational specialty since 1993 when Congress repealed the remaining prohibitions on women serving on combatant aircraft and vessels. However, Department of Defense (DOD) policies have prevented women from being assigned to units below brigade level where the unit's primary mission was to engage directly in ground combat. This policy barred women from serving in infantry, artillery, armor, combat engineers, and special operations units of battalion size or smaller. On January 24, 2013, then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta rescinded the rule that restricted women from serving in combat units and directed the military departments and services to review their occupational standards and assignment policies and to make recommendations for opening all combat roles to women no later than January 1, 2016. On December 3, 2015, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter ordered the military to open all combat jobs to women with no exceptions. This most recent policy change followed extensive studies that were completed by the military departments and by the Special Operations Command (SOCOM) on issues such as unit cohesion, women's health, equipment, facilities modifications, propensity to serve, and international experiences with women in combat. These studies also included a review and validation of gender-neutral occupational standards for combat roles where such standards existed. On March 10, 2016, Secretary Carter announced that the Services' and SOCOM's implementation plans for the integration of women into direct ground combat roles were approved. Some concerns about the implementation of the new policy remain, including the recruitment, assignment, and career management of women into the new roles, and the impact of integration on unit readiness. Congress has oversight authority in these matters, and may also consider issues such as equal opportunity, equal responsibility (such as selective service registration), and the overall manpower needs of the military.
In A People's History of the U.S. Military, historian Michael A. Bellesiles draws from three centuries of soldiers' personal encounters with combat—through fascinating excerpts from letters, diaries, and memoirs, as well as audio recordings, film, and blogs—to capture the essence of the American military experience firsthand, from the American Revolution to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Military service can shatter and give meaning to lives; it is rarely a neutral encounter, and has contributed to a rich outpouring of personal testimony from the men and women who have literally placed their lives on the line. The often dramatic and always richly textured first-person accounts collected in this book cover a wide range of perspectives, from ardent patriots to disillusioned cynics; barely literate farm boys to urbane college graduates; scions of founding families to recent immigrants, enthusiasts, and dissenters; women disguising themselves as men in order to serve their country to African Americans fighting for their freedom through military service. A work of great relevance and immediacy—as the nation grapples with the return of thousands of men and women from active military duty—A People's History of the U.S. Military will become a major new touchstone for our understanding of American military service.
