If you have not heard of the Military Women’s Memorial and its historical repository, then today is the day to learn about this extraordinary tribute honoring all servicewomen who have answered the call to serve.
Approximately 3 million women have volunteered their service to the nation since the American Revolution spanning all branches. Despite this long history, women’s service has often been underrepresented in historical narratives.
The latest available military demographics profile found in the Military OneSource report, indicates that 17.7 percent of active duty members are female. According to the VA, women veterans are the fastest growing group and projected to make up 18 percent of all veterans by 2040. With more than 2 million women veterans and roughly 200,000 serving active-duty today, their experiences and contributions convey a collective story of progress, patriotism, and courage.
What’s Inside
The Military Women’s Memorial is located in Arlington, Virginia but also hosts a variety of online services. Its education center includes a research library of more than 2,000 publications about women’s military service and other organizational contributions supporting wartime efforts. It includes 360-degree online tours, virtual exhibits, lesson plans, and in-person tours and exhibits.
Most impressively, it holds the largest known historical collection documenting women’s service. The Oral History Collection contains more than 1,400 voices since World War I. There are 8,000 donations of photographs, military documents, diaries, film footage, uniforms, and other remnants of the past in the Memorial Collection. Since its public opening in 1997, nearly 308,500 stories have been preserved.
Personal narratives and firsthand accounts help us understand and truly see servicewomen as leaders who share in our nation’s sacrifice and commitment to freedom. The Military Women’s Memorial serves as the nation’s hub for collecting and preserving women’s stories and memorabilia.
Capturing Legacies of Military Women
Work remains to continue to gather the stories of military women. According to the Military Women’s Memorial’s site, we still only have about 10 percent of women represented in the Register, which means a staggering 90 percent of women veterans have not registered to document their service. Servicewomen and women veterans are encouraged to join the Register for free by sharing HERstory, an account of their impact to the nation.
To support their National Registration Campaign, the Military Women’s Memorial provides these simple steps to help share awareness and preserve the legacies of military women:
- Download a graphic to use in a Facebook or Instagram post.
- Post the graphic you selected with this message:
- Don’t forget to tag us in your post: @MilitaryWomensMemorial
Do you have a family member or friend who is a woman veteran? She deserves to take her rightful place in history. Without her story, our nation’s history is incomplete. Register her service for free at womensmemorial.org. #HerMemorial #HERstory
Without these stories, our country’s understanding of military history is incomplete. By recording and storing military women’s stories, their contributions are added to the nation’s collective memory. Even more, we shape the future by showing the next generations of future military women how their predecessors made a significant difference.
See 7 Badass Women Who Made Military History for more powerful storytelling of how servicewomen shaped the nation.
