Female roles in the military
Women have played important roles and have influenced the outcomes of many wars. Female involvement has been official and unofficial throughout history, and in modern civilizations women's involvement in the military has been both voluntary and mandatory.
Current Status
In Israel, military service is mandatory for most men and women over the age of 18. Israel is the only modern country to draft women into its service. Men serve a mandatory three years while women serve a mandatory two years.
The Canadian Forces have allowed women in all occupations and positions since 1989, with the exception of submarines, which were included in 2000. About two percent of combat personnel are female and there are 99 female combat officers. About 15% of Canadian Forces personnel are female.
The German Bundeswehr was opened for women in all occupations by the European Court of Justice in 2000. However, medical officer Verena von Weymarn became the first female general in German military history back in 1994.
The Portuguese Armed Forces allows women in all the occupations and positions, with the exception of special forces.
The Australian Defence Force and the U.S. Armed Forces allow women into all occupations and positions, except for direct combat roles, like infantry, armor, and special forces.
U.S. women did not gain the right to fly in combat roles until after the Gulf War and couldn't serve on combat ships until lawmakers ended a ban on it in 1993.
The U.S. Navy, which permits women to serve on almost every other ship in the fleet, only allows three exceptions for women being on board military submarines: (1) Female civilian technicians for a few days at most; (2) Women midshipmen on an overnight during summer training for both Navy ROTC and Naval Academy; (3) Family members for one-day dependent cruises. The US Navy argues it would cost $300,000 per bunk to permit women to serve on submarines versus $4,000 per bunk to allow women to serve on aircraft carriers.
The usual reasons for barring women that are given are: lack of privacy, and "hot bunking" or "hot racking", as due to lack of space this is a common practice on submarines where three sailors share two bunks on a rotating basis.
Timeline
In ancient wars, the fighting was predominantly fought by men in most cultures. However, there were many exceptions throughout ancient history. Celtic women in particular had various roles in the military, some of which involved fighting alongside their husbands.
- The Amazons were a legendary tribe of warrior women.
- 1560 BC-1530 BC: Aproximate reign of Ahhotep I, female pharaoh and war leader.
- 6th century BC: A story by Sun Tzu describes how Ho Lu, King of Wu, tested his skill by ordering him to train an army of 180 women.
- 510 BC: Telesilla (a warrior poet) defended the city of Argos by rallying women with war songs.
- 3rd Century BC: Spartan princess Arachidamia acts as captian of a group of female soldiers who fought Pyrrhus during his siege of Lacedaemon
- 480 BC: Artemisia, Queen of Halicarnassus, participated in the Battle of Salamis.
- 334 BC: Ada of Caria allies with Alexander the Great and personally handles a siege to reclaim her throne.
- 280 BC: Spartan princess Chelidonis acts as captian of a group of female warriors during a siege of Sparta.
- 186 BC: Gaul princess Chiomaca fights the Romans and Galatians. She refuses to leave the battlefield even when the call for retreat is sounded.
- 41 BC: Fulvia, wife of Mark Antony, organized an uprising against Augustus.
- 24 BC-21 BC: Nubian queen Amanishabheto fights the Roman Army.
- 61: Boudica, a Celtic chieftain in Britain, leads an uprising against the occupying Roman forces.
- 269: Zenobia leads a revolt in the East against the Roman Empire.
Medieval Era (500 C.E.-1550 C.E.)
- 529: Halima, a Ghassanid princess, leads a battle against the Labmidians.
- 600: Kahula, an Arabian army commander, combines her forces with Wafeira, another female commander, and repels the Greek army.
- 624: Hind al-Hunnud leads a battle against Muhammad.
- 960: Gudit (alias Judith, Esato, Gwedit, Yodit) — African rebel queen
- 1081: Sikelgaita fought in the Battle of Dyrrhachium; Anna Comnena called her "a second Athena".
- 1140s: Eleanor of Aquitaine participated in the Second Crusade
- 1346: Joanna of Flanders, Countess of Montfort, defended the rights of her son John V, Duke of Brittany in the Breton War of Succession. During the same war, the opposition was led for a time by Countess Jeanne de Penthievre.
- 1429: Joan of Arc led the French army.
- 1499: Sikhism founded. One of its major tenets is equality for women, which extends to allowing them into participate in combat and warfare. See Category:Female Sikh warriors for more information
- 1533-1610: Lifetime of Amina, Nigerian princess and warleader.
- 1539-1540: Gaitana of the Paez leads the indigenous people of Columbia in armed resistance against the Spanish.
- 1541: Inés Suárez, came to America to search her husband, fought with Pedro de Valdivia in Chile.
- 1545: Lady Lilliard fights in the Battle of Ancrum Moor.
Early Modern Era (1550-1750)
- 1564: Indian queen Rani Durgawati leads her forces against the Mughal army, but is defeated.
- 1572: In defence of the city during a siege of Haarlem by Spanish troops, which lasted from December 1572 to 1573, Kenau Simonsdochter Hasselaer (1526–1588) supplied the Dutch forces with wood. She owned a wood company at Haarlem. Myth says she led a force of women defending the city and ever since "kenau" has been a Dutch expression for a harsh woman.
- 1584: Mary Ambree participates in the fighting against the Spanish for the city of Ghent. A ballad is eventually written about her.
- 17th century to 1894: Dahomey Amazons act as an all female regiment (under female command) of the west African Kingdom of Dahomey.
- 1600: Inahime, a Japanese princess, particpates in the Battle of Sekigahara.
- June 5, 1639: Lady Ann Cummingham leads a mixed-sex calvalry troop in the Battle of Berwick.
- 1643: Lady Mary Bankes defends Corfe Castle from a siege in the English Civil War.
- 1644: Lady Charlotte Derby defends Latham House from Parlimentarian Forces.
- 1670: Alyona, a Russian female ataman rebel, is burned at the stake.
- 1675-1676: King Phillip's War. Awashonks, female chief of the Sakonnet tribe, initially supports Metacomet, but later makes peace with the colonists.
- 1676: Colonists request that Pamunkey chief Queen Anne furnish warriors to fight in Bacon's Rebellion. She initially refuses on the grounds that her tribe was neglected by the colonists for twenty years, but relents when the colonists promise better treatment for her tribe.
- August 1676: Weetamoo of the Wampanoag fights against the English. She drowns in the Taunton River trying to escape.
- 18th century: Kaipkire of the Herero leads forces against British slave traders.
- 1704: Mai Bhago leads Sikh soldiers against the Mughals.
- 1730s-1740s: Female Ho-chunk chief Glory of the Morning allies her tribe with the French in order to battle the Fox tribe.
Modern Era (Post 1750)
- 1754–1763: French and Indian War. Seneca leader Queen Alliquippa is a key ally of the British.
- 1755: Cherokee leader Nancy Ward fights side-by-side with her husband at the Battle of Taliwa. When her husband is killed, she picked up his rifle and led the Cherokee to victory.
- 1763: After the assassination of her husband, Gabriela Silang decided to continue his rebellion against Spain but was unsuccessful.
- 1778: Baltazara Chuiza leads a rebellion against the Spanish in Ecuador.
- 1778: Sikh princess Bibi Rajindar Kaur leads 3,000 soldiers to rescue her cousin who was defeated Hari Singh.
- 1778: Molly Pitcher (born Mary Ludwig in 1754) married John Hays in 1769. Her husband fought for the Continental Army at the Battle of Monmouth (New Jersey) on June 28 1778. During the battle, she brought pitchers of water to her husband and fellow soldiers, thus earning the appellation Molly Pitcher. When her husband succumbed to exhaustion, she picked up his rifle and fought against the British.
- 1780: Manuela Beltrán organizes a peasant revolt in Columbia.
- 1780: Huillac Ñusca of the Kolla tribe rebels against the Spanish in Chile.
- 1782: Bartolina Sisa, an Aymara woman who led an indigenous uprising against the Spanish in Bolivia, is captured and executed.
- October 25, 1785: Toypurina, a Tongva medicine woman, rebels against the Spanish, leading an attack against Mission San Gabriel Arcángel.
- 1793: Renée Bordereau disguises herself as a man and fights as a Royalist cavalier in the French Revolution.
- 1796: Sikh princess Bibi Sahib Kaur leads armies into battle against the British. She is the only Indian woman to win battles against a British general.
- 19th century: Hanging Cloud becomes the first and only woman of the Ojibwa tribe to become a full warrior.
- 1803: Lorenza Avemanay leads a revolt against Spanish occupation in Ecuador.
- 1805: Mai Sukhan defends the town of Amritsar against Ranjit Singh.
- 1807: Nadezhda Durova earned the cross of St George for valour in combat and became the Russian army's first female officer.
- 1809: Joanna Żubr received the Virtuti Militari, the first woman to be granted the highest Polish military award.
- 1816: Shaka becomes ruler of the Zulus.He establishes an all-female regiment to which effectively defended the land against colonists.
- 1817: Gertrudis Bocanegra, a woman who raised a female army to fight in the Mexican War of Independence, is arrested, tortured, and executed.
- 1821: Laskarina Bouboulina fights in the Greek War of Independence.
- 1842: Kuilix, a female warrior of the Pend d'Oreilles leads a group of warriors to rescue another group from the Blackfeet. Women of both the Pend d'Oreilles and and the related Flathead tribe actively participated in warfare, entering battles and dancing in war dances.
- 1846: Kuilix participates in a fight against the Crow.
- 1850: Female Blackfoot war chief Running Eagle is killed in battle.
- 1854: Florence Nightingale (a British nurse) revolutionised both the care of sick soldiers in the Crimean War, and also expectations of the role of women of her status.
- 1857: Indian queen Rani Avantibai fights the British to regain her throne.
- 1857-1858: Indian resistance leader Jalkari Bai defends Jhansi fort against the British.
- 1858: Battle of Spokane Plain. Colestah of the Yakama tribe participates.
- 1861: Dr. Mary Walker was a doctor with the Union Army at the First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas) and three later major engagements, but was later captured and spent the remainder of the war as a prisoner of war. At war's end, she received the Medal of Honor for her service and for hardships endured as a POW. She is the only female to ever receive this honor. By the end of the war, over 500 fully paid positions were available to women as nurses and in the United States Military. It is also believed that women disguised themselves as men in order to fight.
- 1861-1863: Lizzie Compton disguises herself as a man and fights on the side of the Union in the American Civil War.
- April 6-7, 1862: Laura J. Williams participates in the Battle of Shiloh with a company that she raised and led, all while disguised as a man.
- 1868: Battle of Beecher Island takes place. Ehyophsta of the Cheyenne fights in it and later fights the Shoshone that same year.
- 1871: Gregoria Apaza, an Aymara woman, leads an uprising against the Spanish in Boliva.
- 1876: Battle of the Rosebud. The Cheyenne refer to this battle as "The Battle Where the Girl Saved Her Brother" because of the actions of Buffalo Calf Road Woman, who charged into battle to save her wounded brother, causing the Cheyenne to rally and to defeat George Crook. The Other Magpie, a Crow woman, fought on the opposite side.
- 1876: Battle of Little Big Horn. Buffalo Calf Road Woman, Minnie Hollow Wood, Moving Robe Woman, and One Who Walks With the Stars participate.
Early 20th Century
- 1900: Yaa Asantewaa leads the Ashanti in rebellion against the British.
- 1904-1907: Herero and Namaqua Wars take place. Herero warrior women fight against the Germans.
- 1912: Rayna Kasabova during the Balkan War was the first woman to fly as observer on combat missions in the history of military aviation. She carried out a number of sorties droping propaganda materials and bombs on Turkish positions during the siege of Adrianople.
- 1915: French artist Madame Arno organizes a regiment of Parisian women to fight the Germans.
- 1915: Olga Krasilnikov, a Russian woman, disguises herself as a man and fights in nineteen battles in Poland. She recieves the Cross of St. George.
- 1915: Russian woman Natalie Tychmini fights the Austrians at Opatow in World War I, while disguised as a man. She recieves the Cross of St. George.
- 1916: Ecaterina Teodoroiu was a Romanian heroine who fought and died in World War 1.
- 1920: During the Turkish Independence War, Kara Fatma and her gang carried out operations against the British, Armenian, French, Italian and Greek soldiers. They are well-known for killing those who raped young girls.
- 1929: Igbo Women's War of 1929 takes place.
- 1937: During the Dersim uprising, Sabiha Gökçen, the first female aviator in Turkey carried out sorties in operations against the guerrillas.
Period of World War II
- The Red Army had a significant number of women serving, including an entire air force regiment of female fighter pilots, the 588th Night Bombers. The 588th was horribly feared by the Germans who called them "Night Witches". There are also accounts of very successful female snipers, including Lyudmila Pavlichenko.
- Many women served in the French Resistance, Polish Resistance, and Italian Resistance in World War II.
- American women perform many varieties of non-combat military service in special units such as the WAVES, Women's Army Corps, and Women's Auxiliary Air Force.
- April 21, 1942: Easter Posey is killed while working in a bomb manufacturing plant, making her the first American woman to be killed in the line of duty in World War II.
- August 9, 1942: Indian freedom fighter Aruna Asaf Ali hoists Congress flag at Gowalia Tank in Bombay.
- July 1943: Minnie Spotted-Wolf enlists in the United States Marines, become the first female Native American woman to do so.
Post World War II
- May 14 1948: The Israeli Defense Force was founded. Several women transport pilots served in the 1948 war of independence and "Operation Kadesh" in 1956), but later the Air Force closed its ranks to female pilots. There is a draft of both men and women. Most women serve in non-combat positions, and are conscripted for only two years (instead of three for men). Israel remains the only country to conscript women. However, they were largely barred from combat until a landmark high court appeal in 1994, which forced the Air Force to accept women air cadets. In 2001, Israel's first female combat pilot received her wings. Until 2005, up to 83% of positions in the Israeli army were open to women, and today, they serve in combat positions in the artillery, frontier guards .and on Navy ships. Combat duty is voluntary for women.
- 1951: Defense Department Advisory Committee on Women in the Services is established in the United States.
- 1953: Barbara O. Barnwell becomes the first female United States Marine to be awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism.
- 1958-1960: Tibetan Buddhist nun Ani Pachen leads her clan in armed rebellion against the Chinese.
- 1964: Alice K. Kurashige becomes the first Japanese woman to be commissoned in the United States Marine Corps.
- 1967: Barbara Dulinsky becomes the first female United States Marine to serve in a combat zone.
- August 31, 1967: Haydée Tamara Bunke Bider, communist revolutionary, is killed battling Bolivian soldiers.
- Early 1970s: Nelida Cabigayan fights Ferdinand Marcos.
- 1970: Anna Mae Hays becomes the first woman in U.S. military to be promoted to general officer rank. Elizabeth P. Hoisington is promoted the same day.
- 1971: Taramon Bibi fights Pakistan during the Bangladesh Liberation War.
- February 17, 1974: Zimbabwean politician Joyce Mujuru shoots down a helicopter with a machine gun during Zimbabwe's War of Liberation.
- 1976: The United States Air Force Academy, United States Coast Guard Academy, United States Military Academy and the United States Naval Academy become coeducational.
- 1978: Margaret A. Brewer becoms the first woman to reach the rank of general in the United States Marine Corps.
- 1979: Nora Astorga acts a guerilla fighter in the Nicaraguan Revolution.
- 1980: Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front forms. Ana María becomes second in command.
- 1986-1987: Alice Auma leads a rebellion against Ugandan government forces.
- 1990: Bibi Ayesha becomes Afganistan's only female warlord.
- 1990s: Amazon feminism emerges.
- 1995: The Royal Norwegian Navy became the first navy in the world to appoint a female submarine captain.
- 1995: Major Sarah Deal becomes the first United States Marine Corps female aviator.
- 1997: Claudia Kennedy becomes the first woman in the United States Army to hold a three-star rank.
- 1998: The Australian Navy became the second nation to allow women to serve on combat submarines. Canada and Spain followed in permitting women to serve on military submarines.
- 1999: Joanne Mein makes her public debut. She is the first woman to fly in a military precision flying team.
- May 2001: Coral Wong Pietch becomes the first Asian-American woman to reach the rank of general in the United States Army.
- 2003: 2003 US Air Force Academy sexual assault scandal emerges.
- 2003: Sergeant Jeanette Arocho-Burkart is reprimanded for her intergation techniques at Guantanamo Bay
- 2003: Jessica Lynch, a U.S. soldier, was embroiled in a controversy over differing accounts of her capture and rescue in Iraq.
- 2003: Shoshana Johnson becomes the first black female prisoner of war in United States history.
- March 23, 2003: Lori Piestewa, a U.S. soldier, dies in combat. She is the first woman soldier to die in the 2003 Iraq Conflict and the first Native American woman to die in combat while serving in the United States Military.
- April 7, 2003: United States Air Force Captain Kim Campbell gains favorable notice when she successfully pilots her back to her base despite it having been badly damaged in a combat mission.
- June 2003: United States Major General Trudy H. Clark is appointed Deputy Director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency
- June 26, 2003: Serbian politician Biljana Plavšić begins serving her sentence for war crimes.
- November 2, 2003: SPC. Frances M. Vega becomes the first female soldier of Puerto Rican descent to die in a combat zone.
- 2004: American Iraq veteran Kelly Dougherty founds Iraq Veterans Against the War.
- January 2, 2004: Captain Kimberly Hampton becomes the first female military pilot to be shot down and killed by an enemy in United States history.
- October 30, 2004: Megan Ambuhl is convicted of dereliction of duty at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in relation to detainee abuse.
- November 12, 2004: Capt. Tammy Duckworth loses both legs, when the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter she was co-piloting was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade fired by Iraqi insurgents.
- 2005: Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester received the Silver Star for her actions in Iraq during an enemy ambush on their convoy near the town of Salman Pak. She killed at least 3 of the attacking insurgents. Hester was the first female soldier to receive the award for exceptional valor since World War II and the first woman ever to receive the silver star for close combat.
- 2005: Elizabeth Cosson becomes the first woman to be promoted to the rank of Brigadier General in the Australian Army.
- April 30, 2005: Lynndie England pleads guilty to inflicting sexual, physical and psychological abuse on Iraqi prisoners of war.
- May 5, 2005: Janis Karpinski is demoted from Brigadier General to Colonel, although her demotion is not formally related to the abuse at Abu Gharib prison.
- December 2005: Brigadier General Susan Y. Desjardins becomes the first woman Commandant of Cadets and Commander of the United States Air Force Academy.
- 2006: Major Tammy Duckworth became the first female combat veteran to be nominated by a major party to run for a seat in the U.S. Congress.
- 2006: Vivien S. Crea becomes the first female Vice Admiral of the U.S. Coast Guard.
- 2006: First public performance of Nicole Malachowski, the the first woman pilot selected to fly as part of the Air Force Air Demonstration Squadron.
- 2006: Nichola Goddard becomes the first Canadian female soldier to be killed in Afghanistan.
References
- Salmonson, Jessica Amanda.(1991) The Encyclopedia of Amazons. Paragon House. page 192. ISBN 1-55778-420-5