“Feminism,” it was once said “is the radical notion that women are people.” During the Second
World War women across the globe were striving to prove this, and gain their rightful place in the military. Soviet women were trailblazers during World War II; the incredible skills that these women possessed were recognized, and they were able to attain many combat positions previously reserved exclusively for men. However, The United States government was not nearly as progressive- and
American women were heavily discriminated against. Women who volunteered their lives for our country were denied military a status, despite the fact that they were equally qualified and capable.
Women held a variety of positions as pilots, tank commanders, medics, scouts, secret agents, and snipers (Kruper). The Soviet Union employed eight hundred thousand (800,000) women in the military during World War II, and more than three hundred fifty thousand (350,000) of those women held combat positions, Sharp-Shooting Women Best Soviet. Women were put in front-line positions, and were just as effective as men. In some cases the woman's regiments were even more effective than their male counterparts.
In 1941, Aviation Group 122, was formed to put woman through a rugged six month to become fighter pilots. Out of this group three regiments were formed; all three were highly successful.
The 588th night bomber aviation regiments, comprised solely of women, were know by their enemies as the, Night Witches, and were the most notorious of the three regiments. These Women were not even issued parachutes, and they had to fly PO 2s biplanes armed with only four small bomb racks and equipped with flimsy wood and canvas open-cockpits. Based on accuracy statistics, this group of woman proved to be superior even to the men (Sharp-Shooting Women Best Soviet). They were assigned to over 24,000 bombing missions, many of which were very important and highly dangerous. These
Women set an example for the rest of the world, proving that women are no less capable than men in a combat. On September 24th, 1942 Valeriia Khomiakova, a member of 586th regiment, made history. She became the first woman aviator to shoot down an aircraft in battle, when she shot down an enemy aircraft from her Yak 1 fighter plane (Spurling). This was Khomiakova's first mission, although she died a week later Khomiakova paved the way for the 35 more aircraft that her regiment shot down.
The 586th Regiment flew in a total of four thousand four hundred nineteen (4,419) combat missions (Spurling). The Commanding Officer of the 586th, Aleksandr Gridnev, commented that "our experiences showed that women fighter pilots in the majority of circumstances, much better than men, endured g-loads to the body which arose during abrupt and sharp changes of aircraft attitude ...also the women pilots had greater endurance than men during high altitude flights without oxygen" (Spurling).
Not all regiments were strictly one gender, and many of the particularly skilled women pilots were transferred to primarily-male regiments. Liliia Litviak was one of the women who were transferred into a male regiment. While fighting alongside the men, Litviak, was responsible for twelve personal kills and three shared kills before her was career was cut short when she died in air combat during August of
1943.
Soviet Women were promoted in all branches of the army, based on their leadership potential rather than their gender. Zinaida Samsonova began the battle of Stalingad as a fearless nurse who put herself in harms-way to save soldier's livves. When the area she was working in came under heavy fire, she was a natural leader. After her bravery in helping to evacuate a whole hospital along with troops from the area; Samsonova was awarded the Gold Star, the title of “Hero of the Soviet Union”, and became the commanding officer of her regiment. (Cottam 16) However, not all women around the world were treated with the respect that Samsonnova got.
American Women were given much less of an opportunity for advancement, primarily because of the laws put in place to discourage women in the Military. Even though there is evidence to support that (especially in the Soviet Union) woman are equally capable of handling combat positions in the military, combat women were not permitted to attain a, military status (Friedl 165). This is because of
Public Law 625, more commonly referred to as the combat exclusion laws. The combat exclusion law states that the military cannot be more than 2% woman and our military never hit that limit (Friedl 165).
Women were treated with little respect, and did not receive the benefits received by their male counterparts. Women got less pay for doing the same job, and could not receive the same rankings as men for example; a WAAC Second Lieutenant was called a, Third Auxiliary (Friedl 11). When historians wrote about World War II they overlooked many of the American Women's regiments because the government sealed away many of their records for thirty three (33) years (All Things Considered).
Eleven hundred (1,100) women earned their wings, and became military pilots. Even though they did not participate in combat some of their missions were dangerous and thirty eight (38) female pilots died during World War II (All Things Considered). Even the women who gave their lives for our country were essentially considered civilians. Classmates had to pool their money together to send their friend's bodies back to their parents. The government did not even allow American flags to be placed on the graves of these military women, and the families of the women were not permitted to place a gold star in their window indicating that they had lost a member of their family to the war (All Things
Considered).
Women in the United States were eager to help in the army. As many as twenty-five thousand
(25,000) women applied to be a part of the grueling training required to become a pilot. Of all of those women only one thousand eight hundred seventy-nine (1,879) candidates were accepted, and one thousand seventy-four (1,074) successfully completed the grueling program at Avenger Field. Women were also superior to men during this training process in that there was a lower wash-out rate from the rigorous training among women than the 50% of male pilots who drop out (Women Pilots). Golda Meir once stated, “Whether women are better than men I cannot say - but I can say they are certainly no worse.” This was a lesson that the Soviet Union proved, and United States failed to learn during the
Second World War the Soviet Union was progressive during this time period, and they were able to appreciate the true talent and skill that combat women possessed.
Until today women in this era were seldom given a chance to prove to the world that they could be just as valuable of an asset as men; the Soviet Women took advantage of this opportunity by striving to be better than anyone could have ever imagined they would be. The Soviets proved to the world that women have what it takes to be valuable members of the armed forces, yet the United States still failed to accept this. American women were very skilled and highly qualified to fight, but many members of the government still did not believe that Women should be allowed to participate in combat situations.
It was not until years later that American Women were finally allowed to fight in combat missions. Thanks to new research into diaries, letters, newspapers and state and local records, we now know that women were on the front lines of the literary and rhetorical war over slavery long before the shooting war began. They were integral to the slave resistance and flight that destabilized the border between North and South. And they were recruited by both secessionists and Unionists to join a partisan army, with each side claiming that the “ladies,” with their reputation for moral purity, had chosen it over its rivals.

Works Cited Page
“A People at War.” National Archives and Records Administration. National Archives. Web. April 13, 2011
Kazimiera J. Cottam, "Soviet Women Soldiers in World War II: Three Biographical Sketches," Minerva: Quarterly Report on Women and the Military: 16,Questia, Web, 2 May 2011.
"Kazimiera J. Cottam Ed, Jacqueline Kruper. Women in War and Resistance: Selected Biographies of Soviet Women Soldiers,"Minerva: Quarterly Report on Women and the Military, Questia, Web, 2 May 2011.
“Decades after WWII, Female Pilots Finally Honored'.” Weekend All things Considered.” July 4, 2009. Gale World History in Context. Web 13 Apr. 2011
Kathryn Spurling, "Wings, Women, & War: Soviet Airwomen in World War II Combat," Minerva: Quarterly Report on Women and the Military 20.1 (2002), Questia, Web, 2 May 2011.
"Sharp-Shooting Women Best Soviet Snipers," USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education) Dec. 2006, Questia, Web, 2 May 2011.
Women in the United States Military, 1901-1995 A Research Guide and Annotated Bibliography (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996) 165, Questia, Web, 2 May 2011.
Women Pilots in the Army." The Official Homepage of the United States Army. US Army. Web. 03 May 2011.