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Equality Of Women In The Military Essay

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On December 3, 2015, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, announced the full integration of women into all combat military occupational specialties (MOS’s). Gender equality across military positions and occupations did not happen overnight, in fact, women have been vying for their right to participate in combat since the American Revolution and the Civil War. Pioneers like Deborah Samson, Sarah Emma Edmonds, and Frances Clayton hid their gender identity to bear arms and fight alongside their male counterparts in defense of their country and their freedom. Women’s modern day participation in combat is built on the initiative and gumption of those who hid their gender identity and went to war dressed as men.
During the American Revolution, there were limited ways women could fight for America’s freedom from Britain. Deborah Samson, in October of 1778, dressed in men’s clothing and enlisted in the Army under the name Robert Shirtliffe. She was wounded twice during her three-year service; but, could preserve her sexual identity until medical treatment for a brain fever revealed it. Discharged from the military, she later …show more content…
Sara Emma Edmonds was a Canadian who immigrated to America and settled in Michigan. Taking the name Franklin Thompson, she dressed as a man and found work as a traveling Bible salesman. “An ardent Unionist”, Edmonds joined the military in 1861 and served as a medical attendant and mail carrier. There are stories that she even acted as a spy, although no definitive proof exists. When she contracted Malaria, for fear the doctors would discover her gender, she left the military and her alias was charged with desertion. She worked as a nurse and published her memoirs, from which she donated the profits to a soldier’s aid group. Military records and her memoirs cleared Franklin Thompson of desertion and the military granted Sarah Edmonds a pension. (Civil War Trust,

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