Women in the Military: An Unfinished Revolution [Paperback]

Jeanne Holm (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1993

The first comprehensive historical survey of women in the American armed forces....Eloquent, inspiring and richly informative. --Publishers Weekly

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Holm has updated this standard work, originally published in 1982, by adding material on the role of military women in the Grenada, Panama and Persian Gulf campaigns, along with a discussion of the bitter ongoing debate over the combat exclusion laws and draft policies relating to women. A retired Air Force major general, she chronicles women's struggle for a proper place in the armed services in the face of the sexist male leadership, which tolerated their presence as nurses and office clerks but did not take them seriously as soldiers until such breakthroughs as the introductions of weapons training in 1975 and the graduation of the first female cadet from West Point in 1980. Holm describes how Operation Desert Storm in 1991 became the catalyst for demands to review in practical terms the role of women in combat. She shines both as scholar and as journalist, and her account of how women have earned the right to be treated as "members of the first team rather than as a protected subclass" is eloquent, inspiring and richly informative. Director of Women in the Air Force (WAF) from 1965 to 1973, Holm was the first woman to attain two-star rank in the U.S. armed forces.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Updated through Desert Storm, this revision of Holm's comprehensive history of women in the U.S. armed forces (originally reviewed in LJ 10/1/82) exemplifies advocacy scholarship at its best. Holm, a retired major general and former director of the WAF, marshals an impressive body of evidence to support her contention that the increasing number of women in uniform since the 1960s has diminished neither the American military's operational readiness nor its combat effectiveness. Holm concludes that the United States will be best served by gender-neutral policies matching individual talents with necessary jobs--including combat assignments. Though her case for the entirely artificial nature of gender-based restrictions on women's military roles is less than convincingly demonstrated by the limited evidence from the Gulf War that forms the core of her argument, this updated work makes a major intellectual contribution to a major national debate. This is recommended for all collections.
- D.E. Showalter, U.S. Air Force Acad., Colorado Springs
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 560 pages
• Publisher: Presidio Press; Revised edition (June 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891415130
• ISBN-13: 978-0891415138
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #350,853 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Women in the Military is Comprehensive and an Easy Read!, March 29, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Women in the Military: An Unfinished Revolution (Paperback)

As the title of my review indicates, this book was extremely thorough in its history of women in the military. It recounts the evolution of women serving in the military as early as the Civil War (by disquising themselves as men); through the World Wars, where women became increasingly recognized as a crucial asset, serving as aviators and nearly every other specialty outside of direct combat. The book continues through the 1960s and 1970s as legislation made women a permanent component of the US Armed Forces and concludes with the most recent demonstration of "womanpower" in the Persian Gulf. Throughout the book Maj Gen (ret) Holm offers first hand experience and detailed facts and statistics of this difficult and exciting evolution. This combination makes it an enjoyable book, reading more like a novel than a history book. This is a history not often retold, but critical to understanding "Women in the Military."

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From a Air Force Airmans point of view., October 25, 2001

By 

GMB (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Women in the Military: An Unfinished Revolution (Paperback)

I first purchased this book when I was serving in the Air Force overseas. I found it to be a clear and accurate account of what it is like to be a woman in the military. I was profoundly grateful that I was serving in a time where it was mainly whether or not I had the physical and mental qualifications to perform the job I was doing. I was (and in some ways still are) a avionics specialist, a job where I had to be tops in electronics yets still be able to lift avionics parts that weighed over 50 lbs over my head. I salute the women that came before me, paving the way, making advances so that I would consider it a matter of fact that I would be judged by my learned behaviors and not my sex. I think that if someone can do the job, physically and mentally, it should be allowed to them. It is sad to say that I still encountered those "women should be at home and not mucking about" in and out of the military but they did not bother me much, I set them straight using info from this book and my own personal experiance. This is a must read for any woman who wants to experiance our lives and way to push for true equality, judged only on capability and not blind religious dogma. Thank you General Holm (Ret.).

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly wonderful book., July 10, 2010

By 

Rachel "rachel_26280" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Women in the Military: An Unfinished Revolution (Paperback)

I'm going to keep this short:

I read this book when I was 16 years old and it changed my life and the way that I saw myself. I am forever grateful that this book was written and that I found it.

This book has many facts in it that it appears that many are still unable to accept. It's sad, considering our long history in the military and the number of times that we've proven ourselves that so many still think us incapable.

If you haven't read this book, I highly recommend it.