Women at the New York Recruiting Office being sworn in as U.S. Marine privates on August 17, 1918.
This historic photograph captures a group of forward-thinking American women raising their right hands on August 17th, officially breaching an all-male military tradition that had stood firm since the founding of the Marine Corps in 1775. With the American Expeditionary Forces bogged down in the bloody trench warfare of World War I, the military apparatus faced a critical clerical manpower shortage, prompting the Secretary of the Navy to authorize the historic enlistment of female Marines for home-front shore duty. These trailblazing recruits passed rigorous physical and administrative entrance exams, assuming vital corporate and logistical roles that freed up thousands of male Marines to deploy directly to the battlefields of France, permanently expanding the parameters of federal military service and national citizenship.
Image from USMC Archives via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
