Rank #353 in NON FICTION
As a salute to all the many women who fought in World War II, at home, in secret, in the service, we give you this collection of stories of real-life women. Like Agent Peggy Carter, too often their sacrifice and service was...
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Michelle Obama listens to Retired Brig. Gen. Wilma Vaught during a tour of Arlington National Cemetery's Women in Military Service for America Memorial Center in Arlington in 2009. (Alex Brandon/Associated Press)/ Washington Post
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A Memorial to the Women Who Have Served their Country is in Danger of Closing
By Katherine Sharp Landdeck
As Congress drops its plan to require women to register for the draft, it is important to recognize that millions of American women have volunteered to serve their country. And now the memorial dedicated to them might have to close because of a lack of funds.
The Women in Military Service for America Memorial, which opened before a crowd of 30,000 people in 1997, is going broke. According to its 2015 taxes, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation that runs the memorial was nearly $1.1 million in the red last year. Relying strictly on donations, the foundation has run short for at least the past five years and is in real danger of closing. It's up to the American people to save it and help it grow.
The memorial sits at the gates of Arlington National Cemetery and is dedicated to recognizing, honoring and teaching about the millions of American women who have served the nation since our beginning. Memorial archivists and volunteers have registered more than 300,000 servicewomen and gather oral histories and other materials to preserve their stories. Exhibits on women from all American wars grace the long halls of the memorial, where volunteers and staff host nearly 100 events and 100,000 or so visitors each year. But the lack of funds prevents them from doing more to tell these important women's stories.
American women have served their nation since the Revolutionary War, although often without recognition. Some 13,000 women served in World War I, including Frieda Mae Green Hardin, who, at age 101, helped dedicate the Women's Memorial while proudly wearing her Navy yeoman uniform and telling the cheering crowd to "go for it" as she bid them farewell. More than 400,000 American women served their nation in World War II, and some of them were at the dedication, too.
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Despite their vital service, after World War II, a quota was instituted limiting women to only 2 percent of the armed forces. That was just the beginning. For a time, they could not be married, then could not have children younger than 14, did not have equal health benefits and certainly could not be pregnant. The 1970s brought changes, and more doors began to open for women.
The Senate's passage in 1972 of the Equal Rights Amendment was a catalyst for change in the military. Military leaders, believing the ERA would be ratified by the states, began to change the limitations on women.
The Vietnam War changed things, too. In 1973, the Defense Department shifted to an all-volunteer force and the military began to actively recruit women. The military academies opened up to women in 1976. By 1993, after a long and determined effort and the Persian Gulf War, women were allowed to fly in combat. The final limits to combat exclusion for women were dropped in 2013.
Today there are more than 2 million living American women who have served their nation in the active military, National Guard or Reserves.
-Katherine Sharp Landdeck is an associate professor of history at Texas Woman's University.
