Photo By Staff Sgt. Sarah Ralph | U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Ravein S. Price Fitzgerald, a supply clerk with Recruiting...... read more read more
Subscribe
From Opha May Johnson to females being integrated into training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, for more than a hundred years women have been continuing the legacy that Opha May Johnson and 300 other women started back in 1918. In today’s Marine Corps, women make up a total of 8.4% of roughly 185,000 Marines. The progression for women in the Marine Corps has been a slow, but continuous process that has prospered in time. We have come to a time where even women in the Marine Corps do not desire the word ‘female’, in front of the title Marine.
“I like to just refer to myself as a Marine. Not a female Marine and that’s not to say it's incorrect, but I feel like we’re only separating ourselves by thinking of ourselves different from other Marines,” says Sgt. Shaquira Dailey, a Marine with Recruiting Station Orange County.
Although there are a lot of leaders within the Corps who feel the same way as Sgt. Dailey, some have the perspective that even by excluding the female in the title, there is still some type of separation.
“I’m extremely proud to call myself a Marine, and even on top of being a Marine, being able to say I’m a female in the Marine Corps,” says Cpl. Margarita Aguirre, a Marine with Recruiting Station Orange County. “Women in the Marine Corps are out there doing something that very few women will experience in their lives. We should be honoring the legacy and traditions that our fellow sister established before us.”
National Women's History Month is a time to reflect on the women who paved the way for us today. Within the Marine Corps, there have been a vast amount of individuals who have become the first of many occupations, been a part of historical battles, and have conquered what some have considered the impossible, such as doing pull-ups for other physical standards.
“As much as women like to say that everyone doubts us, whether that be our fellow counterparts, or whoever, we doubt ourselves just as much,” explains Sgt. Ravein Price Fitzgerald, a Marine with Recruiting Station Orange County. “I believe that if you earned the title, push yourself to meet or exceed the standards that the Marine Corps expects of us, that should not only empower you as a Marine, but a woman. Looking back on our history, we do no justice to those who came before us if we’re not willing to put in just as much work as they did in order to continue the progression of women.”
This month, we honor and recognize Marines such as, 1st Lt. Patricia Murphy, named the first woman Marine certified military judge, Gunnery Sgt. Mary Vaughn, the first African American woman to become a Warrant Officer, Sgt. Maj. Angela Maness, first female to assume the duties of senior enlisted Marine at Marine Barracks Washington D.C., and all the first female Marine graduates from Drill Instructor School at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego.
| Date Taken: | 03.08.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 03.09.2021 20:13 |
| Story ID: | 390880 |
| Location: | SANTA ANA , CA, US |
| Web Views: | 502 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, National Women's History Month: Through the Marine Corps, by SSgt Sarah Ralph, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
LEAVE A COMMENT