Has there ever been a woman general?
Ann E. Dunwoody
Ann Elizabeth Dunwoody (born January 14, 1953) is a retired general of the United States Army. She is the first woman in U.S. military and uniformed service history to achieve a four-star officer rank, receiving her fourth star on November 14, 2008.
Gordana Garašić
On 1 April 2014 Garašić was promoted to the temporary rank of brigadier general prior to her posting as adviser for gender issues to ISAF. She became the first Croatian woman to hold general rank. In Afghanistan Garašić oversaw the introduction of an all-female facility for the Afghan National Police's elite Crisis Response Units. Her contribution to the integration of women into the police force was recognised in December 2014 when the Afghan government awarded her a medal for achievement. Garašić was appointed to the permanent rank of brigadier general in 2015 and is currently Deputy Director of RACVIAC, an international security co-operation mission based in Croatia.
Li Zhen (female general)
Li Zhen (; 1908–1990) was the first female general of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
Ruby F. Bryant
Bryant presided over the Corps during the latter half of the Korean War. Upon completion of her term as Chief of the Corps, she reverted to her permanent grade of lieutenant colonel and was assigned as Chief, Nursing Service, Medical Division, Europe. In 1958, she was among the first three women to be promoted to the permanent grade of colonel in the Army. She later served as Director, Nursing Activities, Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, until she retired on 30 June 1961. She received the Legion of Merit among her awards and honors. Bryant died in 2002.
Elizabeth Cosson
In March 2007 she assumed the role of Head Defence Support Operations in an acting capacity. In November 2007, the role was confirmed and she became the first woman to be promoted to the rank of major general in the Australian Army. She is the second female to be promoted to two-star rank in the Australian Defence Force, the first being Air Vice Marshal Julie Hammer, who retired in 2005. Cosson, as head of National Operations within the Defence Support Group, became responsible for the management of 80 ADF bases and garrisons across the country. At that time, although about 13% of the ADF were women, there were only four at the one-star level: Commodore Robyn Walker, Commodore Vicki McConachie, Brigadier Lyn McDade and Air Commodore Margaret Staib.
Anna Mae Hays
Anna Mae Violet McCabe Hays (February 16, 1920 – January 7, 2018) was an American military officer who served as the 13th chief of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps. She was the first woman in the U.S. Armed Forces to be promoted to a General Officer rank; in 1970, she was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General. Hays paved the way for equal treatment of women, countering occupational sexism, and made a number of recommendations, which were accepted into military policy.
Nie Li
In 1988, Nie was presented with the rank of major general. Nie and another four women promoted at this time were the first female generals since Li Zhen's commission in 1955. Nie was promoted to lieutenant general on 24 July 1993.
Lone Træholt
Lone Træholt is married and has a son in his early thirties. She was the only female general in the Danish armed forces until the army promoted Jette Albinus to the rank of general on 11 September 2017.
Women in Indian Armed Forces
Dr. Punita Arora, commissioned in 1968, is the first woman in the India Army to reach the second highest rank as the Lieutenant General, and the first female Vice admiral. Padmavathy Bandopadhyay is the first woman Air Marshal of the Indian Air Force and the second woman in the Indian armed forces to be promoted to a three-star rank after Lt. General Punita Arora.
Nadja West
On December 11, 2015, the Senate confirmed the nomination of West to be promoted to lieutenant general and she became the 44th Army Surgeon General. This made West the Army’s first black Surgeon General, as well as the Army’s first black woman to hold the rank of lieutenant general and the Army's highest ranking woman who graduated from the United States Military Academy. Lt. Gen. West was promoted on February 9, 2016, and formally assumed command of MEDCOM on February 10, 2016.
Judith Webb
Judith Webb is a former Major in the British Army and a proponent of equal physical standards for male and female service members. She appeared on the BBC 100 Women list for 2013. She was the first woman to command an otherwise all-male squadron of the British Army.
Carol Mutter
August 1990 brought a transfer to III Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF) on Okinawa, Japan and duty as the Assistant Chief of Staff, Comptroller for both III MEF and 3rd Marine Division. In June 1991, she returned to Quantico as a brigadier general to serve as the Deputy Commanding General, Marine Corps Systems Command and Program Manager for Command and Control Systems. In June 1992, she again transferred to Okinawa, this time as the first woman of general/flag officer rank to command a major deployable tactical command, the 3d Force Service Support Group, III MEF, U.S. Marine Forces Pacific. In June 1994, she became the first woman in the Marine Corps to be promoted to the rank of major general and served as Commander, Marine Corps Systems Command at Marine Corps Base Quantico until August 1996. On September 1, 1996, Mutter was promoted to lieutenant general and assumed the duties as Deputy Chief of Staff for Manpower and Reserve Affairs (DC/S M&RA). Lieutenant General Mutter retired in 1999.
Martha Rainville
In February 1997, Rainville won the Vermont General Assembly's election for adjutant general of the State of Vermont. In most states the adjutant general is appointed by the governor; in Vermont the state legislature chooses. The election for a two-year term is held in February of each odd-numbered year, and the term starts in March. Rainville became the first woman in U.S. history to serve as head of a state's National Guard, and commanded the 3,800 members of the Vermont Army and Air National Guard until her retirement in 2006.
Armed Forces of Ukraine
In September 2018 legislation made women and men equal in the military and law enforcement agencies. The following month Liudmyla Shugaley became Ukraine's first female general (she was appointed the head of the Military Medical Directorate of the Security Service of Ukraine).
Mother's Day
General
Linda Bond
After international service and various promotions, she held the post of territorial commander of the Australian Eastern Territory from 2008. On 31 January 2011, Bond was elected by the High Council to be the next General of the Salvation Army and assumed office on 2 April 2011. She was the third woman and fourth Canadian to be elected General of the Salvation Army. General Evangeline Booth (1934–1939) and General Eva Burrows (1986–1993) were the two previous female Generals of The Salvation Army.
In late 2012, she received an honorary degree from Tyndale University College and Seminary. On 13 June 2013 she unexpectedly announced her retirement with immediate effect.
Tracy L. Garrett
Tracy L. Garrett is a retired major general, serving from 1978 to 2014 in the United States Marine Corps Reserve. During her military career, she served as the first female Inspector General of the Marine Corps.
Women in the military by country
On May 26, 2011, IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz announced Brigadier General Orna Barbivay's appointment as the next Head of the IDF Personnel Directorate. Barbivay was promoted to Major General, thus becoming the most senior female officer in the history of the IDF.
Megan Brennan
Megan Jane Brennan (born 1961) is the Postmaster General of the United States. The seventy-fifth postmaster general, Brennan became the first woman to hold the office when she assumed the position on February 1, 2015.
Marcelite J. Harris
Major General Marcelite J. Harris (January 16, 1943 – September 7, 2018) became the first African-American female general officer of the United States Air Force.
Margaret A. Brewer
While serving as the Deputy Director of the Division of Information, Headquarters Marine Corps, she was nominated during April 1978 for appointment to the grade of brigadier general. She was appointed to that grade and assumed duty as Director of Information on May 11, 1978, at which time she became the first female general officer in the U.S. Marine Corps. On December 1, 1979, the Division of Information was redesignated as the Division of Public Affairs, and Brigadier General Brewer's title was changed to Director of Public Affairs.
Elmira Minita Gordon
Gordon was the first woman to be appointed as Governor General, or the queen's representative, of a Commonwealth realm. She was promoted to both Dame Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) and Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO).
Darlene Goff
On September 26, 2011, Brigadier General Goff assumed her duties as the Director of Joint Staff, also known as the South Carolina's Army and Air Guard Leadership Group. In turn, she became the first female general officer in the South Carolina Military Department. Her duties in this particular role included leadership development for the South Carolina National Guard. She was responsible for the Guard's in-state operations if they were called by the government to take care of natural or man-made disasters. She was one of only 21 female officers in the National Guard, and the highest-ranking female officer of the South Carolina Army National Guard. In March 2015, after 37 years in uniform, Brigadier General Goff formally stepped down from her position and retired.
Women in the Philippine military
In 2011, Brigadier General Ramona Go, from San Dionisio, Iloilo, became the first female general in the Philippine Army after being a regular officer. There had been other female generals in the Philippine military, but unlike Go, those female generals were "technical service" crew, serving in the military as nurses.
Tracy L. Garrett
She held a variety of commands, and served in the Iraq War between September 2004 and March 2005 as chief of staff of the 1st Force Service Support Group. In 2007, she was promoted to brigadier general, and again in 2010 to major general. She has served as commander of the US Marine Corps Forces, Europe and Africa, and was the first female Inspector General of the Marine Corps.
Mabel St Clair Stobart
Mabel Annie St Clair Stobart (nee Boulton; 3 February 1862 – 7 December 1954) was a British suffragist and aid-worker. She created and commanded all-women medical units to serve in the Balkan Wars and the First World War. She became the first woman to achieve the rank of Major in any national army. She was also the author of several books and articles.
Ban Ki-moon
The appointment of many women to top jobs was seen as fulfilling a campaign promise Ban had made to increase the role of women in the United Nations. During Ban's first year as Secretary-General, more top jobs were being handled by women than ever before. Though not appointed by Ban, the president of the General Assembly, Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa, is only the third woman to hold this position in United Nations history.
Women in the Philippine National Police
In 2012, Sarmiento and Arroyo were the only two "female generals" in the Philippine National Police. They were both Chief Superintendents, with Sarmiento being the head of the Police Security and Protection Group (PSPG), while Arroyo was the head of the Crime Laboratory of the Philippine National Police. Arroyo's rank was equivalent to the rank of a brigadier general in the military. In June 2012, Sarmiento was promoted to become the "first two-star female general" of the Philippine National Police and the "first female general to be named in the Directorial Staff of the PNP" since the inception of the Philippine National Police.
Gordana Garašić
Brigadier General Gordana Garašić is a Croatian army officer and that country's first female general officer. A human resources expert, she has been posted to the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. Garašić has also served as an adviser to the Croatian delegations to NATO and the European Union and as an adviser to the Croatian president.
Joint Chiefs of Staff
General Colin L. Powell (1989–1993) was the first and, as of 2011, the only African American to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. General Peter Pace (Vice Chairman 2001–2005; Chairman, 2005–2007) was the first Marine to serve in either position. No woman has ever served on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
History of women in the United States
During the Spanish–American War (1898) thousands of US soldiers sick with typhoid, malaria, and yellow fever overwhelmed the capabilities of the Army Medical Department, so Dr. Anita Newcomb McGee suggested to the Army Surgeon General that the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) be appointed to select professionally qualified nurses to serve under contract to the US Army. Before the war ended, 1,500 civilian contract nurses were assigned to Army hospitals in the US, Hawaii (not a state at that time), Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines, as well as to the hospital ship "Relief". Twenty nurses died. The Army appointed Dr. McGee as Acting Assistant Surgeon General, making her the first woman ever to hold the position. The Army was impressed by the performance of its contract nurses and had Dr. McGee write legislation creating a permanent corps of Army nurses.
Nigar Johar
Major General Nigar Johar Khan is a Pakistani two-star general in the Pakistan Army. Johar is the third woman in the history of Pakistan Army to reach the rank of major general. She belongs to the Army Medical Corps. The other two major general, Shahida Badsha and Shahida Malik also belong to the Army Medical Corps.
Danielle Levillez
Levillez's trained as a pharmacist, graduating from the Université Libre de Bruxelles with a minor in industrial chemistry from the University of Louvain. Levillez joined the military in 1979. She first worked in the central military pharmacy in Nivelles. Levillez was appointed the first female colonel in the Belgian military (2002), and was the first to achieve general rank – initially as a brigadier in December 2005. From December 2005 to 21 July 2009, she was Chief of Staff of the Belgian Medical Component. In 2012 Levillez was promoted to Major General. For many years, Levillez represented Belgium on the "Committee on Women in the NATO Forces" and served for a time as its vice-president. On July 1, 2015 she resigned from active service.
Maria Teresinha Gomes
Maria Teresinha Gomes (1933, Funchal – 2007) also known as a generala was a Portuguese woman notable for spending nearly 20 years successfully pretending to be a male army general.
Rosetta Burke
Burke was named state director of the Selective Service System for New York by Governor George E. Pataki in 1997. The appointment, made available by President Bill Clinton and was signed by the National Director of the Selective Service System, Gil Coronado. After World War II, no women holding high office existed. She was named to the post in 1994, after serving thirty years. She was the first female general in New York's Army National Guard and the first female in the nation to be promoted to Major General. She retired in 1997.
Margaret W. Burcham
Margaret W. Burcham is a retired American brigadier general. She was the first female brigadier general in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Flora D. Darpino
Flora Diana Darpino (born 1961) is a retired American general and military lawyer who was the 39th Judge Advocate General of the United States Army. She was the first woman to hold that position, which she held from September 4, 2013 to July 14, 2017.
Margaret A. Brewer
Brigadier General Margaret A. Brewer, USMC (retired) (1 July 1930 – 2 January 2013), was the first female in the United States Marine Corps to reach the rank of general officer.
Women in the military by country
In present Poland a law passed April 6, 2004 requires all women with college nursing or veterinary degrees to register for compulsory service. In addition it allows women to volunteer and serve as professional personnel in all services of the army. As of June 30, 2007 there are 800 women in the army, of which 471 are officers, 308 non-commissioned officers and 21 other ranks, in addition 225 are in military training schools. Two active duty Polish women have achieved the rank of Colonel. Maria Wittek was the 1st Polish woman to reach the rank of General.
Women in the Pakistan Armed Forces
In 2002, Shahida Malik was promoted to two-star rank and was the first female Major General. Shahida Badshah was the second woman to be promoted to Major General.
Kristin Lund (general)
Born in 1958, Major General Lund has over 34 years of military service and is the first woman ever to serve as Force Commander in a United Nations peacekeeping operation.
Women in combat
For most of human history, people serving in combat were overwhelmingly male. In a few cases, however, individual women have been recorded as serving in combat roles or in leadership roles as queens (such as Queen Boudica, who led the Britons against Rome; Joan of Arc is the most famous example). In the First World War, Russia, after the February Revolution, used one all-female combat unit. Thousands of women served in combat and rearguard roles in the Spanish Civil War. In the Second World War, hundreds of thousands of British and German women served in combat roles in anti-aircraft units, where they shot down thousands of enemy aircraft. They were widely accepted because they were not at risk of capture. In the Soviet Union, there was large-scale use of women near the front as medical staff and political officers. The Soviets also set up all-female sniper units and combat fighter planes. A few women also played combat roles in resistance movements in the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.
Leslie F. Kenne
Leslie F. Kenne is a retired Lieutenant General in the United States Air Force, a rank she attained in 1999, and the first woman to attain that rank in the Air Force. She is currently on the board of directors of SRI International, Harris Corporation, Oshkosh Corporation and Unisys Corporation. Kenne also serves on the Air Force Studies Board, part of the National Academy of Sciences.
Amira Dotan
Dotan served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) from 1965 to 1988, ending her career as the Head of the Women's Corps, with the rank of Brigadier General. Attaining it in 1986, she became the first woman in the history of the IDF to hold this rank. She also completed a B.A. in Behavioral Science and an M.A. in Psychology from the Ben Gurion University of the Negev. Upon completing her military service, she served as Vice President of that University, as well as on the Board of Directors of Israel Military Industries and at the Jewish Agency.
Alicia Tate-Nadeau
Brigadier General Alicia A. Tate-Nadeau is the first woman to be promoted to general in the Illinois Army National Guard.
Louise Lake-Tack
Dame Louise Agnetha Lake-Tack (born 26 July 1944) is a former Governor-General of Antigua and Barbuda. She was the first woman to hold the office.
Pat Foote
General Foote had many notable achievements during her career. She was the first female public relations officer in Vietnam in 1967 and the first female faculty member appointed to the U.S. Army War School in 1979. General Foote was also the first female brigade commander in Europe and the first female Inspector General in the Army in 1986. When Foote was promoted to Brigadier General in 1986, she became one of only four female generals in the U.S. Army. She was also the first female commander of Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
Nguyễn Thị Định
Madame Nguyễn Thị Định (15 March 1920 – 26 August 1992) was the first female general of Vietnam People's Army during the Vietnam War. Her role in the war was as National Liberation Front deputy commander, and was described as "the most important Southern woman revolutionary in the war". Furthermore she was commander of an all-female force known as the Long-Haired Army, whom engaged in espionage and combat against ARVN and US Forces.
General of The Salvation Army
On January 31, 2011, after 10 days of meetings which began on January 21, 2011, the 17th High Council elected Linda Bond as the 19th General of The Salvation Army. Bond was the third woman to hold the post and the fourth Canadian. This election was handled by the largest High Council in history and was especially significant due to the number of women delegates (57) outnumbering the number of men delegates (52).
Women's Royal Army Corps
The highest rank available to a serving officer was Brigadier, held by the Director WRAC, although the Controller-Commandant, a member of the Royal Family, held a higher honorary rank. Princess Mary held the post from 1949 to her death in 1965 (beginning as a Major-General and being promoted General on 23 November 1956) and the Duchess of Kent held it from 1967 to 1992 (with the rank of Major-General).
Robin Umberg
Brigadier General Robin Umberg (born c. 1955), Deputy Commander Clinical Services 3rd Medical Command, is one of several female United States Army general officers.
Verena von Weymarn
Von Weymarn became a medical officer in the Luftwaffe in September 1976 and served in the Bundeswehr for more than twenty years, receiving special training at San Antonio, Texas airforce base and NATO college in Rome. She became "Generalarzt der Luftwaffe" (""Surgeon General of the Air Force"") in Siegburg-Heide, North Rhine-Westphalia on March 23, 1994, being the first woman ever to reach the rank of general in the armed forces of Germany.
List of elected and appointed female heads of state and government
This list includes heads of state or government that were elected by a governing committee or parliament, in the case of states that do not have direct democratic elections, but not those appointed by a monarch.Below are women who have been appointed representatives of heads of state, such as female governors-general and French representatives of Andorra. As governors-general are appointed representatives of the monarch of the Commonwealth realms (currently Elizabeth II) and the French Representatives of Andorra are appointed representatives of the French Co-Prince of Andorra (currently Emmanuel Macron), they act as heads of state and carry out on a regular basis the functions and duties associated with such a role in the Commonwealth realms (excluding the United Kingdom, which has no governor-general, as the monarch of the Commonwealth realms primarily resides there) and Andorra, respectively.
Lurita Doan
Lurita Alexis Doan (born Lurita Alexis; January 4, 1958) is a businesswoman, political commentator, and former Republican appointee who was the administrator of the United States General Services Administration, the government's contracting agency, from May 31, 2006, to April 29, 2008, during the administration of Republican U.S. President George W. Bush. She is the first woman to have held this position.
Ann E. Dunwoody
Among her notable firsts, she became the first woman to command a battalion in the 82nd Airborne Division in 1992. She became Fort Bragg's first female general officer in 2000. She became the first woman to command the Combined Arms Support Command at Fort Lee, Virginia, in 2004. And in 2005, Dunwoody became the first female soldier to achieve three-star rank since LTG Claudia J. Kennedy, the former Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, who retired in 2000.
General of The Salvation Army
The office of General is not restricted by gender. Evangeline Booth, Booths's daughter, was elected the fourth General of the Army, and Australian Eva Burrows was elected the thirteenth General. On January 31, 2011 Commissioner Linda Bond, a Canadian national, was named General-Elect of The Salvation Army and assumed office on April 2, 2011 following the retirement of General Shaw Clifton.
Fort Drum
In 2015, Diana M. Holland became the first woman to serve as a general officer at Fort Drum, and the first woman to serve as a deputy commanding general in one of the Army's light infantry divisions (specifically, the 10th Mountain Division.)
Elizabeth Cosson
Major General Elizabeth Cosson (born 1958) is a public servant and retired Australian Army officer. Cosson was appointed Head Defence Support Operations and promoted to major general in 2007, becoming the first woman to reach such a rank in the Australian Army. In December 2010, she took the position of General Manager of the Executive Division of the Department of Veterans Affairs. As of 2012, Cosson is Deputy Secretary of the Business Services Group, Department of Immigration and Border Protection.
Women in the United States Army
American women in the Army served in the Afghanistan War from 2001 until 2014, and in the Iraq War from 2003 until 2011. In 2008, Ann Dunwoody became the first female four-star general in the Army; she was also the first in the military. In 2011, Patricia Horoho became the first female Army surgeon general.
Gertude Ali Ram
Gertude Ali Ram was the first woman major General of the Indian Army.
Carolyn Stait
Commodore Carolyn J Stait CBE (born 1957) is a retired officer of the Royal Navy, and was from 2004 to 2007 the first woman to command a Naval Base in Britain. As Commander of HMNB Clyde in Scotland, the home of the UK's nuclear deterrent at the Faslane Naval Base, Stait was the first woman to be selectively promoted to the rank of Commodore in direct competition with male officers: no woman has held a higher rank in the Royal Navy to date.
Women in the military in Europe
On 26 January 2017, major general Tonje Skinnarland became the first-ever appointed woman to be the head of the Royal Norwegian air force.
Singapore Armed Forces
Women are exempt from full-time National Service, but can sign on as a career regular soldier in both combat and non-combat roles, some as combat officers, but mostly in clerical and logistic positions in the earlier years. The range of positions available to women has been expanded gradually, with some exceptions in vocations. In July 2007, the SAF held an exhibition highlighting the contributions of women in the armed forces. Annual women career seminars are conducted to inform Singaporean women of careers in the SAF facing competitive factors in the labour force. In recent years, some women have taken higher positions, such as BG Gan Siow Huang, who is the highest ranking female officer and the first female General in the SAF.
Women in Israel
On 23 June 2011, Orna Barbivai became the first female Major-General in the IDF upon her promotion to the role of commander of the Manpower Directorate. She is the second woman to serve on the General Staff.
Women's Army Corps
Colonel Geraldine Pratt May (b.1895 - d.1997 [served 1942-19??). In March, 1943 May became one of the first female officers assigned to the Army Air Forces, serving as WAC Staff Director to the Air Transport Command. In 1948 she was promoted to Colonel (the first woman to hold that rank in the Air Force) and became Director of the WAF in the US Air Force, the first to hold the position.
Jeanne M. Holm
Holm was promoted to the grade of brigadier general July 16, 1971 the first woman to be appointed in this grade in the Air Force. She was promoted to the grade of major general effective June 1, 1973 with date of rank July 1, 1970 and was the first woman in the Armed Forces to serve in that grade.
Air Command and Staff College
In 1952, Major Jeanne M. Holm became the first woman to attend the Air Command and Staff School. She was later the first female USAF officer to achieve the rank of brigadier general and later major general.
Lori Robinson
Lori Jean Robinson (born c. 1959) is a retired United States Air Force general who served as commander of the U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) and commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) from May 2016 to May 2018. She is the first female officer in the history of the United States Armed Forces to command a major Unified Combatant Command.
Chai Hui-chen
Major General Chai Hui-chen (), sometimes referred to as Tschai Hui-chen or by her English name Jane, is Taiwan's first female combat-status general. She is currently the Director General of the Information Assurance Division in the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Communications, Electronics & Information (J6) in Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense. As such, she is the person leading the Taiwan military in their information security efforts, and she is the primary spokesperson for the MND on several intrusions into MND military systems possibly originating in the People's Republic of China.
Women in the Pakistan Armed Forces
In 1948, the first lady of Pakistan Begum Ra'ana took the lead in starting the women's voluntary service in 1948 to support the medical and logistics for the Pakistan Armed Forces engage in the Indo-Pakistani war of 1947. This led to the formation of a women's unit in the Pakistan Army Corps of Medical; a first attempt was also made in introducing the combat training program for women but such attempts were dismissed by General Frank Messervy. In 1949, the first lady took personal initiatives and established her own Pakistan Army Women National Guard (WNG) with a few combat courses introduced. The unit's first GOC and chief controller was Begum Ra'ana, with the rank of brigadier.
Lorna Mahlock
Lorna Mahlock is the first African American woman to be nominated as a Brigadier general (one star) in the United States Marine Corps. The signoff of the nomination, by President Donald Trump, was made known in a press release by U.S. Secretary of Defense General James Mattis. , BGen (sel) Mahlock is the Deputy Director of Operations, Plans, Policies, and Operation Directorate at Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps, Washington, D.C.
Susan Ridge
Major General Susan Kerstin Ridge, (born 1962 or 1963) is a senior British Army officer and lawyer. Since September 2015, she has been Director General of the Army Legal Services Branch (DGALS). She is the first woman to hold the rank of major general in the British Army and the first to hold non-honorary general officer rank since World War II.
Women in the military by country
In 2011, Major General Margaret H. Woodward commanded Operation Odyssey Dawn's air component in Libya, making her the first woman to command a U.S. combat air campaign.
Sri Lanka Army
Many officers commencing with Lieutenant Colonel A.W. Thambiraja were appointed to command this unit from time to time. The first women’s corps officer to command the unit was Lieutenant Colonel Kumudini Weerasekara in 1992 and as of 2007 there were three female officers of the rank of Major General. At present there is 2 regular regiments and 5 volunteer regiments in the Women’s Corps.
Carmelita Vigil-Schimmenti
Brigadier General Carmelita Vigil-Schimmenti (born December 16, 1936) was an officer of the United States Air Force, who in 1985 became the first Hispanic female to attain the rank of Brigadier General. Vigil-Schimmenti was the Chief of the U. S Air Force Nurse Corps, Office of the Surgeon General; Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C.
Gina Reque Teran
Gina Reque Teran is a Bolivian general. She is the first woman to hold that rank in the Bolivian Army.
Edjewani Afenu
On March 7, 2016, she was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General, the highest position ever occupied by a female in the Armed Forces.
Knight
Women were appointed to the Order of the Garter almost from the start. In all, 68 women were appointed between 1358 and 1488, including all consorts. Though many were women of royal blood, or wives of knights of the Garter, some women were neither. They wore the garter on the left arm, and some are shown on their tombstones with this arrangement. After 1488, no other appointments of women are known, although it is said that the Garter was conferred upon Neapolitan poet Laura Bacio Terricina, by King Edward VI. In 1638, a proposal was made to revive the use of robes for the wives of knights in ceremonies, but this did not occur. Queens consort have been made Ladies of the Garter since 1901 (Queens Alexandra in 1901, Mary in 1910 and Elizabeth in 1937). The first non-royal woman to be made Lady Companion of the Garter was The Duchess of Norfolk in 1990, the second was The Baroness Thatcher in 1995 (post-nominal: LG). On 30 November 1996, Lady Fraser was made Lady of the Thistle, the first non-royal woman (post-nominal: LT). (See Edmund Fellowes, "Knights of the Garter", 1939; and Beltz: "Memorials of the Order of the Garter"). The first woman to be granted a knighthood in modern Britain seems to have been H.H. Nawab Sikandar Begum Sahiba, Nawab Begum of Bhopal, who became a Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India (GCSI) in 1861, at the foundation of the order. Her daughter received the same honor in 1872, as well as her granddaughter in 1910. The order was open to "princes and chiefs" without distinction of gender. The first European woman to have been granted an order of knighthood was Queen Mary, when she was made a Knight Grand Commander of the same order, by special statute, in celebration of the Delhi Durbar of 1911. She was also granted a damehood in 1917 as a Dame Grand Cross, when the Order of the British Empire was created (it was the first order explicitly open to women). The Royal Victorian Order was opened to women in 1936, and the Orders of the Bath and Saint Michael and Saint George in 1965 and 1971 respectively.
Nadja West
Nadja Y. West (born 1961) is a United States Army lieutenant general and the 44th U.S. Army Surgeon General and Commanding General of the U.S. Army Medical Command. West is the first black Army Surgeon General, and was the first black female, active-duty, major general and the first black female major general in Army Medicine. West is also the first Army black female lieutenant general. She is the highest ranking woman to have graduated from the United States Military Academy.
Mary Robinson
General
Maryanne Miller
Maryanne Miller is a United States Air Force general who currently serves as the commander of Air Mobility Command, Scott Air Force Base, Ill. Air Mobility Command's mission is to provide rapid, global mobility and sustainment for America's armed forces. The command also plays a crucial role in providing humanitarian support at home and around the world. The men and women of AMC - active duty, Air National Guard, Air Force Reserve and civilians - provide airlift, aerial refueling, special air mission, aeromedical evacuation and mobility support. She previously served as the Chief of Air Force Reserve and the commander of Air Force Reserve Command from July 2016 to September 2018. Miller is the first Air Force Reserve officer to achieve the rank of general. She was also the first woman to serve as the chief of Air Force Reserve. She assumed her current assignment on September 7, 2018.
List of female state attorneys general in the United States
The following is a list of female attorneys general of states in the United States. Since 1959, there have been 32 states which have appointed or elected women as attorneys-general. Pennsylvania has had a record 3 women hold office as attorney general, with Anne X. Alpern having been the first woman to hold office as attorney-general of any state. 13 states have had at least two women serve as attorneys-general.
Cristina Yang
General
Women in the military
The only nation to deploy female combat troops in substantial numbers was Russia. From the onset, female recruits either joined the military in disguise or were tacitly accepted by their units. The most prominent were a contingent of front-line light cavalry in a Cossack regiment commanded by a female colonel, Alexandra Kudasheva. Others included Maria Bochkareva, who was decorated three times and promoted to senior NCO rank, while "The New York Times" reported that a group of twelve schoolgirls from Moscow had enlisted together disguised as young men. In 1917, the Provisional Government raised a number of "Women's Battalions", with Bochkareva given an officer's commission in command. They were disbanded before the end of the year. In the later Russian Civil War, they fought both for the Bolsheviks (infantry) and the White Guard.
Chief of the General Staff (Slovenia)
The Chief of the General Staff () is the Chief of the General Staff of the Slovenian Armed Forces. That person is appointed by the President of Slovenia, who is the commander-in-chief. The current Chief of the General Staff is Major General Alenka Ermenc. She is the first woman to hold this position, and the first woman to hold such a position within armed forces of the member states of NATO.
Robin Fontes
Robin L. Fontes is a United States Army major general. In July 2017 she took command of Combined Security Transition Command – Afghanistan, becoming the highest-ranking female military officer in Afghanistan since the American invasion of that country in 2001. A mustang officer, Fontes was commissioned in 1986 and focused on Central Asia, eventually serving in Tajikistan, Pakistan, and India, including a few years in Afghanistan. She assumed her current position after the resignation of Michael Flynn from the Trump Administration ended her announced role as senior director for India, Pakistan and Central Asian Affairs on the United States National Security Council.
Women in the military by country
Fatima Zohra Ardjoune, director general of the Ain Naâdja military hospital, was promoted to general, the first woman in the Algerian People’s National Army (PNA)—and in the Arab world—to reach this rank. Three years later, Fatima Boudouani became the second woman to be promoted to the rank of general in the , and she was followed by three more women in 2015, therefore becoming the Arab country with the biggest number of high-ranking female army commanders. Four generals were also promoted to the rank of major-general.
Colleen L. McGuire
Brigadier General Colleen L. McGuire, USA is the Executive Director of Delta Gamma Fraternity in Columbus, Ohio. She is a retired officer of the United States Army and served on the Joint Staff. She was the Commanding General of the United States Army Criminal Investigation Command and the 13th Provost Marshal General, the first woman to hold either position. Brigadier General McGuire was also the first female to be commandant of the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Women in the United States Senate
Joni Ernst became the first female combat veteran to serve in the Senate when she joined in 2015. In 2016, a record 15 women were their party's nominee for Senate, 12 of whom were truly competitive. Louisiana also had a female senatorial candidate, but she did not make the run-off. Catherine Cortez Masto was among those elected in 2016; she was the first Latina Senator. In 2016, Kamala Harris was the first woman to defeat another woman from the same party, U.S. Representative Loretta Sanchez, in a general election. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire hold the distinction of being the first and second women elected both governor and senator of a state; both served as Governor of New Hampshire and served together in the Senate starting in 2017.
Ramona Go
Go served as a platoon leader in the corps at Camp Aguinaldo and a tactical officer in several military units. She has passed army courses for intelligence officers, airborne forces, finance officers, armor officers, technical services command and the general staff course. Go was once commander of the aviation battalion of the Light Armor Division. She has served as head of several military tribunals and was also adjutant general of the armed forces. She was promoted to brigadier general on 4 April 2011 upon her appointment to deputy chief of staff for personnel. She is the first female regular army officer to be promoted to general rank (previous female generals had come from the technical branch, e.g. nursing). Go was also the first female military pilot, first female line officer, first female adjutant general and the first female battalion commander in the Philippines.
Gina Reque Teran
On 9 March 2015 Reque Teran was promoted to general. She was the first female army general in Bolivia and the first female general in South America to command combat troops. She was appointed chief of staff of the Bolivian armed forces on 30 December 2015. In that capacity Reque Teran commanded the army parade to celebrate the 206th anniversary of the founding of the army at Santa Cruz.
Lone Træholt
Lone Træholt is the first woman in the Danish armed forces to obtain the rank of general. On 30 September 2016, she was promoted to brigadier general in the Royal Danish Air Force, heading the Tactical Air Staff. In 2000, Træholt was also the first woman in the Danish Air Force to hold the rank of lieutenant colonel (), and in 2008, the first female colonel ().
List of female United States military generals and flag officers
Heidi Brown
United States military seniority
Alexander Vandegrift is also frequently included in historical seniority lists due to his status as the first Commandant of the Marine Corps to hold a four-star rank, as is Anna Mae Hays who was the first woman to be promoted to brigadier general in the history of the United States. Historical seniority is rarely referred to after the Korean War since modern military seniority systems had been well-established after the mid 20th century. Expanded seniority lists such as the one listed below do exist mostly in recognition of major military leaders of modern wars and conflicts.
Women in the Air Force
The first director of WAF was Colonel Geraldine Pratt May, who received her first commission in August 1942. She had been among the first women officers assigned to the Army Air Forces, where she served as WAC staff director within Air Transport Command. May's wartime command at "Air WAC" included 6,000 enlisted women and officers. On becoming director of WAF, May was promoted to full colonel, the first woman in the Air Force to attain that rank. May served until 1951 at which time she accepted a non-military government post.
Women in the United States Army
During the war, Anna Mae Hays, Chief of the Army Nurse Corps, became the first U.S. female brigadier general on June 11, 1970. Minutes later, Elizabeth Hoisington, Director of the Women’s Army Corps, became the second. An Army nurse (1st LT Sharon Ann Lane) was the only US military woman to die from enemy fire in Vietnam. Two other Army nurses were awarded the Soldier’s Medal for heroism in Vietnam; one was African-American 1LT Diane Lindsay. She was cited for restraining a Vietnamese soldier patient, who had pulled a pin from a live grenade at the 95th Evacuation Hospital in Vietnam. 1LT Lindsay helped convince the soldier to relinquish a second grenade, avoiding additional casualties.
Anna Mae Hays
On May 15, 1970 President Richard Nixon appointed Hays to the rank of brigadier general and on June 11, 1970, she was promoted at a ceremony, officiated by the Army Chief of Staff, General William C. Westmoreland, and the Secretary of the Army, Stanley R. Resor. Following Hays' promotion, Elizabeth P. Hoisington, Director of the Women’s Army Corps, was also promoted to the rank of brigadier general. Hays said in her address to the gathering, that the general stars "reflect[ed] the dedicated, selfless, and often heroic efforts of Army nurses throughout the world since 1901 in time of peace and war." After her appointment she asked to be dropped off at the army officers' club front entrance, countering the prevailing occupational sexism. Although entitled to enter and use the club before, female officers were expected to come through the side entrance.
Manushaqe Shehu
On 1 November 2016 Shehu was appointed commander of the army's non-commissioned officer academy and was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general. She was the first female general in Albania. Shehu was appointed head of the army's Training and Doctrine Command in December 2016. She is married with two children.
Edith Nourse Rogers
On December 3, 1948, the Director of the WACs, Colonel Mary A. Hallaren, became the first commissioned female officer in the U.S. Army. The WACs still were not equal. They were limited in numbers, had no command authority over men, were restricted from combat training and duties, had additional restrictions on claiming dependents, and aside from their director, no woman could be promoted above the rank of lieutenant colonel. WACs served in the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
Ann E. Dunwoody
On November 14, 2008, Dunwoody became the first woman in U.S. military history to achieve the rank of four-star General. Her promotion ceremony was held at the Pentagon, with introductory speeches by U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Army Chief of Staff General George W. Casey.Dunwoody's military awards and decorations include:
2006 United Nations Secretary-General selection
Noting that all Secretaries-General to date have been men, Equality Now launched a campaign for the election of a female Secretary-General, and identified a ‘sampling’ of 18 qualified women, including Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga, Louise Arbour, Gro Harlem Brundtland, and Tarja Halonen. Equality Now also noted that there are many qualified Asian women, including Aung San Suu Kyi from Burma, Sadako Ogata from Japan, Nafis Sadik from Pakistan, Anson Chan from Hong Kong, and Leticia Shahani from the Philippines. The idea of a female Secretary-General received some support, including from Kofi Annan and US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton), but no Asian women were nominated.