Women also dealt with societal whispers that only immoral women wanted to work like men or that menopause would prevent them from being good leaders.Īll military positions and jobs are open to women now but that didn’t occur until 2016. Their civilian husbands did not have commissary or hospital privileges, Cushman said. Women could comprise only 2% of the force they could hold only certain ranks, couldn’t command men and didn’t receive the same benefits. Military auxiliary corps for women were established during World War II and women could serve during peacetime but the rules were restrictive. The benefits were not granted until 1977, after many of the women had died. Those telephone operators fought for decades for veterans benefits. But women were still told they could not serve. Women were regaled for their contributions after the war, and their service was key to women gaining the right to vote in 1920. The operators often had to work near the front lines.

Women were contracted by the Army to work as telephone operators in France because men had not be trained to do the “women’s work” in the U.S. “In some places women went in in the morning and were in the Navy in the afternoon,” Cushman said.

Recruiting offices had women lined up around city blocks to join the cause. citizens, the reserve force required only that applicants be citizens. While the military required applicants to be male U.S. that were emptied with men going to fight. With World War I, the Navy need bodies to fill clerical roles in the U.S. Even then, the women were not given ranks. “It has been a journey and an evolution.”Ĭushman said the first women to officially serve in the military were Army nurses in 1901. “They are helping us tell this story of women’s service,” Cushman said. The hard fight that women have faced has often been overlooked, she said. The museum honors the nearly 3 million women who have served in a myriad of roles going back to the American Revolution, including Sarah Shattuck and friends, who took up pitchforks to defend a bridge, and others who sewed shirts for male soldiers.Īs a veteran and spokesperson for the museum, Cushman is honored by the tattoo’s focus. Marilla Cushman, director of public relations for the Women In Military Service For America Memorial in Arlington, has been working with the Virginia Arts Festival’s tattoo staff this year and is a veteran herself – 25 years in the Army. E-Pilot Evening Edition Home Page Close Menu

Long road tattoo