When one hears the words “military history,” the stories of female veterans are easily forgotten. And yet again and again, women have filled places that defied expectations and left behind legacies as proud as any general or statesman. From the Civil War era to outer space, these amazing veterans showed us that determination and courage do not know gender. These are seven women whose service transformed the way we view both the military and women in general.
6. Sarah Emma Edmonds – The undercover spy and nurse of the Civil War
We begin with someone who quite literally re-wrote her own identity to serve. Sarah Emma Edmonds, a Canadian-born woman, escaped a battered home and became Franklin Flint Thompson, a man who worked as a Union Army nurse. She wasn’t satisfied with simply nursing the injured—she allegedly went undercover as everything from a Southern lady to a Black worker in an effort to spy behind enemy lines.
Once illness compelled her from the field, she worked as a nurse in Washington, D.C., and went on to write a bestselling memoir of her time there. Eventually, Edmonds received a pension and was the only female accepted into the Grand Army of the Republic. Her tale is one from a book—but even more potent because it was real.
5. Elsie S. Ott – The trailblazing WWII flight nurse
In 1943, 2nd Lt. Elsie S. Ott was issued with an almost unthinkable mission: escort five seriously ill patients halfway around the globe by air—without any experience on a plane. Armed with a first aid kit and one sergeant to assist her, she flew from Karachi to Washington, D.C., in a week that would have taken months by boat. Ott’s journals from the journey were used as the model for future air evacuations. For her courage and vision, she was the first woman in the Army to be awarded the Air Medal. She also clarified that skirts were not going to feature in her field of work—a minor but indicative detail of her pragmatism and vision.
4. Harriet Tubman – The Underground Railroad heroine turned Union Army leader
Harriet Tubman’s name is automatically linked with freedom, but her service during the Civil War is quite as remarkable. Following emancipation of enslaved individuals by way of the Underground Railroad, she served as a Union scout and commanded the Combahee River Raid in 1863, emancipating approximately 750 men, women, and children.
This established her as the first U.S. female to lead a military expedition. Her scouting, bravery, and command were so noteworthy that Union generals publicly recognized her contributions to the raid’s success. Despite being denied a pension for most of her time in service, Tubman is one of the greatest war leaders of the 19th century.
3. Grace Murray Hopper – The programming legend of the Navy
Grace Hopper wasn’t only ahead of her time—she invented the future. Enlisting in the Navy Reserves in 1943, she served on the Mark I computer and continued to develop the compiler, which democratized programming and paved the way for contemporary software. She even coined the phrase “computer bug.” Hopper climbed the ranks to rear admiral and mentored generations of programmers and sailors alike. By the time she retired, she had a ship, a supercomputer, and a score of honorary degrees that bore her name. Her legacy indicates that military careers can lead to innovation far from the battlefield.
2. Col. Eileen Collins – The Air Force pilot who piloted the space shuttle
Eileen Collins was captivated by flight from a young age, looking at aircraft with her father and hoping for the day she would be able to get into the cockpit. She enlisted with the Air Force in 1979 and soon made history as the first female flight instructor. And she didn’t do it once—Collins became the first woman to command a space shuttle mission. With over 5,000 flight hours and over 500 space hours, she embodied what it means to be a pioneer. Standing tall over the planet, arms extended, she called it absolute freedom—a picture as awe-inspiring as her trailblazing life.
1. Bea Arthur – The Marine Corps truck driver who became a TV icon
Well before she was a television legend, Bea Arthur—formerly Bernice Frankel—was one of the first to enlist in the Marine Corps Women’s Reserve during WWII. She typed and drove a truck, gaining promotions to staff sergeant.
Her service record characterized her as “argumentative” and “over-aggressive,” qualities later channeled into her brassy, boundary-stretching performances in “Maude” and “The Golden Girls.” Arthur never talked much about her military days, but her time in uniform contributed another shard of toughness to the quick-witted actress America grew to adore.
Why these women matter: Shattering barriers and shifting perceptions
What these women have in common isn’t their uniforms—it’s that they refused to be confined to the boundaries placed upon them. Whether masquerading as men, flying across the world, leading troops, coding, or smashing TV stigmas, every one of them showed that service is about determination and vision, not gender. From the battlefields of the 1800s to the cockpit of the space shuttle, these pioneers demonstrated that women could stand shoulder to shoulder with men, influencing both the military and the history of the nation in the process.