Blog post

Women’s Equality Day: Celebrating Women in the Army
Posted by Michael Houston on August 26

Women have served in the Army since 1775 and today serve in greater numbers than ever before. Women now represent 20 percent of all new recruits, 15 percent of the active-duty military, and more than 11 percent of the forces deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. And although excluded from official "combat roles," there are no clear front lines in the current conflicts. While serving in support roles, such as military police, helicopter pilots (like Tammy Duckworth, Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs and IAVA Member Veteran), and truck drivers, women are exposed to direct fire and combat daily.

The skills women bring to the battlefield are extremely beneficial, where stability operations, peacekeeping, and counterinsurgency require winning the hearts and minds of the people. Women are well suited to engage with the female population of a country and those who are not always willing to cooperate with male troops.

Women's Equality Day, which commemorates the passage of the 19th Amendment, the Woman Suffrage Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gave U.S. women full voting rights in 1920, is an opportunity to honor our female troops and veterans.

To learn more about women in the Army, click here.

To see IAVA's past celebration of Women's History month, click here.

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