The Women's War Memorial

Most films, photographs, or even literary descriptions of the wars that occurred in the United States or wars in which the United States has been involved, depict soldiers as male. Consequently, many people remain unaware of the military contributions of American women. The Women in Military Service for America Memorial in Washington, D.C. seeks to rectify this problem. Notably, the memorial is certainly not as famous as the Vietnam War Memorial or the Iwo Jima Marine Memorial. But the Women's Memorial relative anonymity is somewhat appropriate, as many women have dedicated their lives in relative anonymity in military service to the United States since the American revolutionary war in the eighteenth century.

During the last two centuries, more than 2 million women have served in this nation's wars. Many of them have served under conditions that demonstrated their status not just as second-class soldiers, but also as second-class citizens. For example, Frieda Mae Greene Hardin notes that when she joined the Navy in 1918, women still could not vote and were not entitled to military status or veteran's benefits. Today, two-hundred thousand women make up approximately 13 percent of the United States armed forces. Yet women remain ineligible for some military assignments, including all assignments for ground combat and submarines.

It took organizers 11 years and $22 million dollars to complete the women's war memorial. At the entran

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imprisoned her in Richmond for four months until they exchanged her and two dozen other Union doctors for 17 Confederate surgeons. In his citation awarding her the Medal of Honor, President Andrew Johnson stated that Walker "has devoted herself with much patriotic zeal to the sick and wounded soldiers, both in the field and hospitals, to the detriment of her own health, and has also endured hardships as a prisoner of war four months in a Southern prison while acting as contract surgeon." However, despite this quality of service, Walker was paid a monthly pension for her service lower than that of most war widows. Moreover, in an attempt to make the Congressional Medal more valuable, Congress changed retroactively the criteria for the award and rescinded Walker's medal. Walker refused to return the medal, and continued to wear it. Finally, in 1977, President Carter restored her award of the medal. Walker was able to obtain a commission as a surgeon during the Civil War because, during that time, both the Union and Confederate armies prohibited women from enlisting as soldiers. Like Newcom during the Mexican War, therefore, many women who were determined to serve assumed masculine names and dress. For this reason, historians h
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Approximate Word count = 1908
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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