ABSTRACT
The participation of women in the work of the military over the last one hundred years has been characterized by changing policies, cyclical inclusion, internal stratification, and gradually increasing participation. Personnel demands determined their overall inclusion until the 1940s (that is, they were hired when there were not enough men to fill the needed positions). However, it took the changes of the 1970s to increase women's participation beyond 2 percent. Although today women are still stratified into certain jobs deemed acceptable for women (other than direct combat), military women command at various levels, serve throughout the world, and represent roughly 11 percent of the Armed Forces. Thus, women are a growing and important part of the work accomplished by the military.
