Women Officially Serving in the U.

S Military: How Women

Demanded Their Right to Fight

Rachael Burcker

Senior Division

Individual Website

Process Paper: 444 Words

 Process Paper

Growing up, I have always been surrounded by veterans such as my uncles, grandfather,

and distant cousins. However, I realized that I have no connection with a female veteran or

soldier. When the theme for this year was announced, I realized that I should do more research

on the females who served for our country. In many movies, such as ​Pearl Harbor​, many women

only acted as nurses, so I decided to research when in history this stereotype changed. However,

as I conducted this research, I came to realize that it was not so easy. Women had to face many

challenges to get where they are today, so I thought this topic would go perfectly along with

“Breaking Barriers in History.”

When starting my research, I at first only hunted for very vague information, such as

brief summaries on History.com and a timeline in which specific Acts were passed and

organizations were formed. However, when digging deeper, I started to research specific women

who voluntarily served in wars on ​American History.​ In order to find valuable information

during my research, I hunted down reliable sources such as .org, .edu, and .gov sites. In order to

find primary sources, I searched for letters that soldiers/nurses wrote to their families and audio

clips/videos of real women who actually served during WWI and WWII talking about their

experiences.

My project category is a website. I decided to select this category because I really

enjoyed creating a website in eighth grade about the New York Draft Riots of 1863 for National

History Day last year. It was a fun experience being able to organize interesting information and
display lots of photographs and color. To me, this way of presenting information is eye-catching

and makes an audience want to focus more on what I have created.

This year’s theme is Breaking Barriers in History and my topic is Women Officially

Serving in the U.S Military, which was a huge barrier broken due to the fact that women at first

were only used as nurses and volunteers during times of emergency. The topic goes along the

format of how women had a great accomplishment despite facing three large challenges, which

consisted of risking their lives, not getting equal pay, and facing discrimination/resentment from

their fellow male troops. This topic also relates to Breaking Barriers in History because if this

event had never occurred, then women would still be faced with injustice and not allowed to

have the career they deserve.