Since American Revolution, women have played part on front lines

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by Lindsey Francy May 27, 2023 News
Since American Revolution, women have played part on front lines

Whether in support positions or on the frontlines, women have served in America's wars.

During the Revolutionary War, women served as soldiers and spies.

Danielle DeSimone, USO manager of content marketing, has researched 200 years of the roles American women played in combat.

DeSimone said that women played service support roles during the earliest days of the country. Women pretended to be men, cut their hair, and served alongside men on the frontlines in order to prove that they could do a better job than men.

Troy Harman, professor of history at Penn State, said that women have been the core of what has happened in the past. Women are taking care of the children when the men are fighting. All of that together, that's what we're holding.

Molly Pitcher became a name during the American Revolution. She risked her life going out between the lines to give water and bandages to the wounded in the Battle of Monmouth.

Margaret was wounded in 1776 when she helped to fire a piece of weaponry. She was one of the first women to get a pension after the war.

Deborah Sampson was the first woman to join the Continental Army when she enlisted in 1782. During the American Revolution, she was the only woman to receive a full military pension, she served as an infantryman and was wounded.

The chaos in the cities made women assume public roles in the 1830s and 40s. The women brought moral reform into the cities with the immigration of the Irish and Germans. There were poor conditions in the buildings.

He said that in the chaos women became involved in relief organizations and moral reform movements, and that the same thing happened with the armies.

Political activism was an extension of the nurses corps during the civil war. Sanitation and moral reform were brought to the Army by the Nurses Corps.

Women began to serve as nurses on a larger scale during the Civil War. Thousands of women served as nurses during the war.

She said that some women joined in order to be close to their husbands.

Black gunpowder was put on their face to make it look like they had a beard.

Women who fought in the Civil War are considered to be heroes.

The American Red Cross was helped by Clara Barton, who took the sanitary commission.

DeSimone said that Barton received a military pass that allowed her to travel directly onto the battlefield to tend to wounded soldiers.

Over the course of the war, Dorothea Dix led her own army of nurses, according to her biography.

She provided ample opportunities for female nurses to work in support of the military and pushed for high standards of behavior and training among her nurses.

Some women took part in the Civil War. According to DeSimone, historians think about 1000 women hid themselves as men and fought in the Civil War.

At the Battle of Gettysburg, there was a woman named Mary Tepe who wore a long red skirt and was carrying a canteen with wine or some type of alcohol for the wounded. She worked as a cook and a seamstress. She was in the Battle of Gettysburg.

An anonymous woman in a Confederate uniform was found dead in a field.

About 35,000 women served in World War I. The Hello Girls, a critical support staff role, was one of the roles that women served in.

The functions men would have served had they not been off to war were served by women.

The nurses were involved in the Salvation Army, helping to collect and serve packages to the troops.

There were 350,000 women who served in the U.S. military in World War II. Women began to work in factories after many men were drafted to fight in World War II. The posters of Rosie the Riveter were the symbol of it.

Women in the military are able to serve in combat roles thanks to World Wars I and II, according to Mike Case.

The women served in dangerous areas during World War II.

The frontlines in Vietnam were ambiguous. USO staffers and volunteers were included.

The military has always been a boys club, but DeSimone thinks that is changing. There are women in the ranks.

Women were allowed to fight in combat zones in the year 2013.

Even now, women are breaking ground.

The first female NCO qualified for infantry combat.

Case said that women are still in the forefront of breaking down traditions.

Women made up 17.3% of the active duty force in the year 2021.