Neha Patil (Editor)

Women in warfare and the military (1945–99)

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit

This list is about women in warfare and the military from 1945 to 1999.

Contents

For women in the United States military during this time period, see Timeline of women in warfare in the United States military from 1945 to 1999

1945–49

  • 1948 Netiva Ben-Yehuda fights in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

    • 1950s

  • 1950: Hate Woman of the Kainai Nation died. When she married her husband Weasel Tail, she loved him so much that she refused to let him go into battle without her, so that they would never die apart. She went on five raids armed with a six-shooter. On one raid, she stole a saddle, an ammunition bag, and a war club. After another raid, she, her husband and one other man returned with fourteen good horses. Hate Woman was asked to tell her adventures at the Sun Dance celebration, an unusual honor.
  • 1950: Blanca Canales leads the Jayuya Uprising in Puerto Rico against the Federal government of the United States. After leading rebel forces, she was arrested for the murder of a police officer and the wounding of three others.
  • 1950: Korean War. Women's Army Corp is created in Korea.
  • 1951: The People's Republic of China begins recruiting female military pilots.
  • 1951: Yael Rom (Hebrew: יעל רום‎‎; 1932–2006), born Yael Finkelstein, was one of the first female pilots of the Israeli Air Force and the first trained and certified by the force. Rom received her wings on December 27, 1951, graduating the IAF's 5th flying course.
  • 1953: Korean war ends. Women start serving in the South Korean military.
  • 1955: Private Esther Arditi becomes the first female soldier to be awarded an IDF decoration, the Medal of Distinguished Service.
  • 1953-1959: Cuban women fight in the Cuban Revolution led by Celia Sanchez Mandulay, among them Haydée Santamaria.
  • 1956: Rawya Ateya became the first woman to be commissioned as an officer in the Liberation Army. She played an active role in the Suez War, during which Egypt was invaded by the United Kingdom, France and Israel. She helped train 4,000 women in first aid and nursing amid the war. She held the rank of captain in a women's commando unit.
  • 1956-1957: Battle of Algiers (1956–57) takes place. Several women participate, including Hassiba Ben Bouali, and Zohra Drif.
  • 1958-1960: Tibetan Buddhist nun Ani Pachen leads her clan in armed rebellion against the Chinese.
  • 1958: Dương Thu Hương leads a communist youth brigade for ten years in the Vietnam War. She later became a political dissident and is now living in exile from Vietnam.

    • 1960s

  • 1961: Josephine Okwuekeleke Tolefe was the first female Commissioned Officer in the Nigerian Army; she was granted Short Service Commission on 7 February 1961 in the rank of Second Lieutenant with seniority in the rank with effect from same date. She was also the first woman to attain the rank of an Army Captain in Nigeria, which she attained on 1 June 1963.
  • 1961-1964: Phung Le Ly fights for the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War, an experience she chronicles in her memoir When Heaven and Earth Changed Places.
  • 1963: Josephine Okwuekeleke Tolefe became the first woman to attain the rank of an Army Captain in Nigeria, which she attained on 1 June 1963.
  • 1967: Dilma Rousseff fights as a guerrilla in Brazil. She later became Brazil's first female president.
  • August 31, 1967: Haydée Tamara Bunke Bider, alias Tania the Guerrilla, communist revolutionary, is killed battling Bolivian soldiers.

    • 1970s

  • 1970s: Aminta Granera abandons her training as a nun in order to join the Sandinistas and fight against Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle.
  • 1970s: Fay Chung joins ZANU.
  • June 22, 1970: Dang Thuy Tram, a Vietnamese military doctor, is killed by United States forces while defending a hospital. Her wartime diaries are published in 2005.
  • 1971: Taramon Bibi fights Pakistan during the Bangladesh Liberation War.
  • 1974: Nelida Cabigayan, a member of the Philippine's New People's Army which was fighting the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, surrenders. She is considered to be a folk hero in the Philippines.
  • February 17, 1974: Zimbabwean politician Joyce Mujuru shoots down a helicopter with a machine gun during the Rhodesian Bush War. She eventually takes the nom-du-guerre Teurai Ropa ("Spill Blood"), and then rose to become one of the first women commanders in Mugabe's ZANLA forces.
  • 1974: Maj. Wendy Clay, a doctor, qualifies for her pilot's wings in the Canadian military six years before the pilot classification is opened to all women.
  • 1975: Nicaraguan Gioconda Belli is forced into exile for her activities as a Sandinista.
  • 1978: Cpl. Gail Toupin becomes the first female member of the SkyHawks, the Canadian Army's skydiving demonstration team.
  • 1979: Nora Astorga acts as a guerrilla fighter in the Nicaraguan Revolution.

    • 1980s

  • 1980: Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front forms. Ana María becomes second in command.
  • 1981: 2nd Lieut. Inge Plug becomes the first female helicopter pilot in the Canadian military.
  • 1981: Lieut. Karen McCrimmon becomes the Canadian Forces' first female air navigator.
  • 1985: Women have been allowed into almost all operational functions of Norway's Armed Forces since 1985. The exceptions are the para-rangers and marine commandos, because as of 2011 no woman has met the entry requirements.
  • 1986: Rebecca Mpagi joined the National Resistance Army; she was the first Ugandan woman to join the army as a military pilot.
  • 1986-1987: Alice Auma leads a rebellion against Ugandan government forces.
  • 1987: All trades are opened to women in the Canadian Forces, including the combat arms. However, women are still restricted from serving in submarines until 2002 when the Victoria-class submarines are acquired.
  • 1988: Col. Sheila A. Hellstrom is the first female graduate of National Defence College in Canada. She becomes the first Canadian Regular Force woman to be promoted to the rank of brigadier-general.
  • 1988: First female gunners in the Canadian Regular Force graduate from qualification 3 training.
  • January 19, 1989: Canadian Forces soldier Heather Erxleben becomes the first female to graduate from a Regular Force infantry trades training course.
  • 1989: Maj. Dee Brasseur became the first Canadian female fighter pilot of a CF-18 Hornet.
  • Late 1980s: Latifa and Lailuma Nabizada become the first female graduates of the Afghan Airforce Academy. Lailuma eventually died in childbirth, making Latifa the first female pilot in Afghan history.

    • 1990s

  • Early 1990s: Jo Salter becomes the Royal Air Force's first female fighter pilot.
  • 1991: HMCS Nipigon becomes the first Canadian mixed-gender warship to participate in exercises with NATO's Standing Naval Forces Atlantic.
  • 1991: Lieut. Anne Reiffenstein (née Proctor), Lieut. Holly Brown and Capt. Linda Shrum graduate from artillery training as the first female officers in the combat arms in Canada.
  • 1992: On July 13, 1992, 22 women began their naval training at INS Mandovi in Goa to become the first commissioned officers in the Indian defence forces. Prior to 1992, the Indian Navy enlisted women only in the role of doctor.
  • 1993: Lieut. (N) Leanne Crowe is the first woman in Canada to qualify as a clearance diving officer and is subsequently the first woman to become Officer Commanding of the Experimental Diving Unit.
  • January 1, 1994: Comandante Ramona, an officer of Zapatista Army of National Liberation, takes control of San Cristóbal de las Casas, a Mexican city.
  • 1994: Maj.-Gen. Wendy Clay becomes the first woman in Canada promoted to that rank.
  • 1995: Chief Warrant Officer Linda Smith is the first woman to be named Wing Chief Warrant Officer in the Canadian Forces at 17 Wing Winnipeg.
  • 1995: Chief Petty Officer, 2nd Class Holly Kisbee becomes the first woman Combat Chief of a major warship in Canada.
  • 1995: Maj. Micky Colton becomes the first female pilot in Canada to complete 10,000 flying hours in a Hercules aircraft.
  • 1995: A Norwegian woman, Solveig Krey, became the first female commanding officer of a submarine in the world when she took command of the first Kobben class submarine on 11 September 1995.
  • 1995: Lieut. Ruth-Ann Shamuhn of 5 Combat Engineer Regiment becomes the first female combat diver in Canada.
  • 1995: The Royal Norwegian Navy became the first navy in the world to appoint a female submarine captain.
  • 1998: The Australian Navy became the second nation to allow women to serve on combat submarines. Canada and Spain followed in permitting women to serve on military submarines.
  • 1998: Brigadier Patricia Purves becomes the first British one-star general selected in open competition across the British Army. (The Women's Royal Army Corps, disbanded in 1992, had a 'tied' brigadier appointment.)
  • 1998: Although women had served as pilots during the Israeli War of Independence and a few years thereafter, the Israeli Defense Forces had until 1995 denied women the opportunity to become pilots. After the prohibition was lifted, the first female graduate was F-16 navigator "Shari" in 1998.
  • January 1999: Indonesian woman Cut Syamsurniati successfully leads a group of women to negotiate with the military when her village is attacked.
  • 1999: Arlene dela Cruz became the first woman to graduate at the top of her class at the Philippine Military Academy.

    • References

    Women in warfare and the military (1945–99) Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA