Center for Women Veterans (CWV)

Salute to Generations of Service

“I’m One:  I am a Veteran”

Women have proudly served and taken part in every major conflict since the American Revolution.  Please join us as we review the past through the present and salute the service of women Veterans down through the years.  In September 2015, VA’s Center for Women Veterans and the VA Women’s Health Group launched a new campaign “I’m One:  I’m a Veteran.”  The “I’m One” campaign focuses on developing identity and respect for women Veterans.  This campaign expands outreach to women Veterans who often feel “invisible” and not acknowledged or respected for their service and also hopes to encourage more women to self-identify with their Veteran status and to access the programs and services which they’ve earned.

Select the generations below to read about the women who served in and with the military services over time and any upcoming events.  The Women in Military Service for America Memorial’s History Highlight offers thematic articles about individuals and events of particular historic significance.

The Early Years

Women have formally been a part of the U.S. Armed Forces since the inception of the Army Nurse Corps in 1901, but have informally served since the inception of our nation’s military.  In the Civil War, women disguised themselves as male soldiers.  During the American Revolution, women served on the battlefield alongside their men, mainly as nurses, water bearers (“Molly Pitcher”), cooks, laundresses, and saboteurs.  As the Army faced an epidemic of typhoid at the outset of the Spanish-American War in 1898, Congress once again authorized the appointment of women as nurses.  Between 1,200 and 1,500 women volunteers were recruited and served between 1898 and 1901 in the United States, overseas, and on the hospital ship Relief.  Learn about the Early Years Women Veterans

World War I

When the United States entered the European War on April 6, 1917, it marked the first time in the history of the country that regular Army and Navy military nurses served overseas—although without rank—and the first time, women who were not nurses were allowed to enlist in the Navy and Marine Corps.  A handful of women also served in the Coast Guard.  The US Army, however, refused to enlist women officially, relying on them as contract employees and civilian volunteers.  Learn about the World War I Women Veterans

World War II

The history of women who served in or with the US military during World War II is a complex story of policy development, cultural expectations, social norms, race relationships and citizenship.  While this may be stated for almost any era, the sheer numbers of women in the military and the global significance of World War II reinforce the impact of the event.  The war changed women’s expectations and gave impetus to movement for greater gender equality—even though postwar society expected women to leave the workplace and focus on their roles as wives and mothers.

Learn about the World War II Women Veterans

Korean War

The 1950s became a decade of survival in an unwelcome environment for women in the armed forces.  The military had difficulty recruiting women when it needed them and retaining them once they enlisted.  While the Cold War and the Korean War required military buildup, the country’s social climate promoted ambivalence within the armed forces toward maximizing women’s contributions to national defense.  Learn about the Korean War Women Veterans

Vietnam War

In 1972, two policy issues intertwined to advance women’s position in the US Armed Forces:  the decision to end the draft and to rely on an all-volunteer military force (AVF) and the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution.  These policy and legislative moves focused attention on the issue of women’s equality in the armed services, and throughout the decade, barriers to women’s full integration into military life began to fall.  Learn about the Vietnam War Women Veterans

Post-Vietnam - 1980s

Even with the limitations imposed on their service, women filled positions that made combat exclusion policies difficult to define and enforce.  All services, with the exception of the Marine Corps, trained women as pilots and aviation crew.  The Coast Guard and Navy provided some opportunities for seagoing and command assignments.  Women received weapons training, served as military police and embassy guards, launched missiles and served in other positions that blurred differentiations between combat and noncombat positions, particularly under conditions of modern warfare and technological advances.  Learn about the All-Volunteer Force Women Veterans

1990s into 21^st Century

In 1990, women comprised 11 percent of active duty military personnel and 13 percent of reserve forces.  Despite their expanded numbers, women’s roles in large-scale military operations remained unclear and untested.  But during 1990 and 1991, more than 40,000 servicewomen deployed to Southwest Asia during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm and the role of women in the military passed another milestone.  Many faces in the news were those of women at war working as soldiers side-by-side with their male colleagues and often in leadership roles.  Learn about the 1990s into 21^st Century Women Veterans

The Center for Women Veterans greatly appreciates the Women in Military Service for America (WIMSA) for use of their historical context and has used the same eras of service to track with the WIMSA research.

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