Women in the United States Marine Corps

No one by the name of Lucy Brewer (or that of her other pseudonyms, or that of her husband) can be found in historical records; in addition, it is highly unlikely a woman could have disguised herself for three years on the Constitution, as the crew had little to no privacy.

In addition, Brewer's book The Female Marine's identifying details of the Constitution's travels and battles are nearly verbatim to accounts published by the ship's commanders in contemporary newspapers.

Most of them served as part of the clerical and administrative staff, in an effort to free male Marines of stateside duties so those men could join overseas combat.

[2] At the peak of the Vietnam War, there were approximately 2,700 women Marines on active duty, serving both stateside and overseas.

[35][36] Susan Livingstone served as the first female Acting United States Secretary of the Navy from January 24 to February 7 of 2003.

[40] In early 2018, Col. Lorna M. Mahlock became the first Black woman to be nominated as a Brigadier general (one star) in the United States Marine Corps.

Panetta's decision gave the military services until January 2016 to seek special exceptions if they believed any positions must remain closed to women.

[47][48] In 2015 Joseph Dunford, the commandant of the Marine Corps, recommended that women be excluded from competing for certain front-line combat jobs.

[50] However, in December 2015, Defense Secretary Ash Carter stated that starting in 2016 all combat jobs would open to women.

On the enlisted side, PFC Maria Daume, who was born in a Siberian prison and later adopted by Americans, became the first female Marine to join the infantry through the traditional entry-level training process.

[58] Frontiero v. Richardson, 411 U.S. 677 (1973), was a landmark Supreme Court case[a] which decided that benefits given by the military to the family of service members cannot be given out differently because of sex.

Pentagon officials said that the increased percentage was due to the greater awareness of administrative and legal options given to victims, giving them more confidence to speak out.

[70] According to scholars, since at least as early as 1960, Executive Order 10450 was applied to ban transgender individuals from serving in the United States military.