The Rationale Behind our Project
Our project’s foundation is women veterans telling their service stories. We include women who served between World War II and the present to address a longstanding social perspective that only men are veterans. While we highlight progress made toward gender equality in military service, we use the stories to help the public learn about historical inequities, policies that limited women’s opportunities, and the importance of education to dispel inaccurate perspectives.
As with other issues concerning equality, continued progress is not ensured, particularly in a polarized political environment exemplified by the voice of commentators, such as Tucker Carlson, who makes public statements against women in the military and states that a national interest in recruiting and keeping women in the service is “a mockery of the armed forces.”
Our project offers a window into how the public would benefit from addressing these misunderstandings and misperceptions. Our events will help the public better understand all veterans and their place(s) in society and address critical questions for veterans and the public, such as (1) What does it mean to be a veteran? (2) How much and what kinds of military service qualify one for respect or disdain, entitlement or marginalization, afterward?
Methodology
We highlight the need to continue documenting and understanding women’s service contributions and sacrifices in all aspects of history.
How: By collecting and collating women’s stories about their service contributions and sacrifices, we counter stereotypes and help the public better understand women’s contributions and service to our country. Our initial goal is to find women from at least four branches of the military (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine) who represent different time periods of military service from the end of World War II (1945) to the present.
We supplement these stories with historical material that provides both a context for their service and a rationale for the needed changes. We are using a Timeline that focuses on policies that have played a role in expanding women’s roles and presence in the military.
Partnership: Uniting the US and Virginia Tech (VT) is an ideal partnership to address this misinformation and provide counterprogramming. In its initial year of operations, Uniting US’s programming to support veterans, military, and their family members revealed a significant need to help women veterans and their issues. Organizations like the Arlington National Cemetery and the Women’s Memorial took an interest in women’s military service and hosted national-level events with Uniting US. Virginia Tech was one of the first major institutions to integrate women into its Corps of Cadets. Equally important, VT has continued to emphasize the importance of the humanities in addressing the needs of veterans and their families through its Veterans in Society (ViS) initiative (one of its ViS conference themes was “Humanizing the Discourse”).
Oral Histories: The oral histories were recorded by Jason A. Higgins or by a student under his supervision. His students had been rigorously trained in best practices and principles as established by the Oral History Association. These interviewers are trauma-informed, and we upheld shared authority and informed consent. Oral histories do not produce generalizable conclusions; thus, this project was determined exempt from the Institutional Review Board. Nonetheless, review and informed consent were upheld at each stage of the recording and processing of this oral history project. Before the recordings, participants were informed that anything they discussed in the interview could be made public knowledge, and that they did not have to answer any questions that they did not want to answer, and that they could stop or pause the interview at any time. Moreover, participants have reviewed all materials, including the transcripts, video and audio recordings, and webpages featuring their stories. They each had the opportunity to review, edit, or redact any information that they would not want to be public information, and we have made any requested changes.
Why a timeline? To address societal biases, “gray areas,” and misconceptions about the contributions of women in the military since World War II, the 80-year historical timeline will illustrate the governing policies related to women in the military. For audience members, the historical summary may be new evidence.