Fighting for their Right to Fight: Women in the U.S. Military

About this Episode

In this episode, Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee shares about her book, “A Few Good Women: America’s Military Women from World War I to the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan”. She reveals specific stories that were discussed with her in the interviews she conducted with Servicewomen from each war year (World War I to the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan). Ms. Neidel-Greenlee also shares about the history women in the military experienced. We conclude this episode by discussing a few strategies for professionals to better assist female Service members.

Guest Bios

Raised in Oil City, Pennsylvania, Ms. Neidel-Greenlee graduated from the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Nursing and earned a Master of Nursing Degree from Emory University in Atlanta, where she served on the faculty of the School of Nursing for several years. During the Vietnam Era, she served on Active Duty at the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, and then, as a civilian Public Health Nurse, in the District of Columbia. Later, she was attached to the U.S. Naval Reserve, Atlanta Georgia. Serving in various staff and management positions at the Atlanta Veterans Administration Medical Center (VAMC), she was appointed the adjunct responsibilities of the Women Veterans’ Coordinator during her tenures as Assistant Chief of Nursing Service and as a Quality Management Analyst. Ms. Neidel-Greenlee has presented programs about her books, U.S. military women’s history, and the issues confronting women serving in the U.S. military on various media including National Public Radio, C-Span 2 “Book TV,” USA Radio Network, TV news programs, VAMC’s and Army Medical Centers nationwide, military museums, universities, public libraries, book festivals, book clubs, and at the Women in Military Service to America (WIMSA). In 2005, Emory University awarded Ms. Neidel-Greenlee the Distinguished Nursing Achievement Award.

Additional materials

1. A Few Good Women: America’s Military Women from World War I to the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Alfred A. Knopf, 2011
2. All This Hell: U.S. Nurses Imprisoned by the Japanese, University Press of Kentucky, 2000
3. Albanian Escape: The True Story of U.S. Army Nurses Behind Enemy Lines, University Press of Kentucky, 1999
4. And If I Perish: Frontline U.S. Army Nurses in World War II, Alfred A. Knopf, 2002
5. Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS) (2019, January 1). 2018 Annual Report. https://dacowits.defense.gov/Portals/48/Documents/Reports/2018/Annual%20Report/DACOWITS%20Annual%20Report%202018.pdf?ver=2019-03-11-115325-640

This material is based on work supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Office of Military Family Readiness Policy, U.S. Department of Defense Award Number 2015-48770-24368.