Over the past couple of decades, women have made great strides in the military. More military positions and opportunities have opened up, and the amount of women in the military has increased. However, female representation in our military is still very low. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, women represent just 16 percent of enlisted forces. However, this doesn’t mean that the work female soldiers do is any less important.

To gain more insight on this topic, I talked with Kris Fuhr. Kris is a West Point graduate and the mother of a female Army captain. Currently, she works to connect women in Ranger School to resources and opportunities. Going forward, she told me that she wants to work to get rid of the implicit biases within the military. She wants to see female soldiers given opportunities based on their skills instead of their gender. 

          My mother, also a West Point graduate, described the change in women’s roles in the military as “groundbreaking.” Some examples of this are allowing women into the Service Academies in 1976 and lifting all restrictions for women in the military in 2016. Before these events, women could be a part of the military and could work alongside men, but weren’t acknowledged as part of the units that the men were in. Now, women can be accounted for and celebrated in the military. 

This Veterans Day, I encourage you to celebrate the women in our Armed Forces. Some interesting women to research are Grace Murray Hopper and Ann E. Dunwoody. Both of these women were incredible trailblazers for female soldiers. Their bravery and hard work inspired many to make the change that we see today.

Sources:

https://www.cfr.org/article/demographics-us-military

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.military.com/veterans-day/famous-women-veterans.html/amp