Command and General Staff College Foundation News Fall 2017 - 12

FEATURE
PHOTOS COURTESY WWW.ARMY.MIL

Left to right, Capt. Nargis Kabiri (current Active Army) - First female field artillery commander for the 3rd Infantry Division.; Maj. Ann Dunwoody (Desert
Storm) - First female four-star general; Maj. Charity Adams (WWII) - First African-American woman to be commissioned into the Women's Army Auxiliary
Corps; Dr. Mary Walker (Civil War) - The only female Medal of Honor recipient.

Department of Military History offers
course on the history of women and war
by Dr. Janet Valentine and Lt. Col. Chris Johnson, CGSC Department of Military History
The CGSC Department of Military History offers a
d "A678: Women at War" during the elective
period of the Command and General Staff Officers Course
(CGSOC). Introduced in 2010 by Associate Professor Dr.
Janet Valentine, the course aims to help students understand
the historical context of women engaged in war and to assess
how women have influenced developments in military affairs.
While the course focuses on women in war, discussions often
encompass the challenges and benefits the Army has with
successfully integrating other groups as well.
In 2014, Valentine and Assistant Professor Lt. Col. Christopher
R. Johnson formed a teaching partnership that has been very
popular with students. The course regularly enrolls international
and male officers as well as women officers from a wide range
of military occupational specialties. Such diversity creates a
singularly rich learning climate.
To achieve the larger learning objectives of "Women at War,"
the curriculum provides a survey of historical and theoretical
debates over the roles, experiences and effects of women
engaged in war. Although the class explores the history of
women at war in a global context and across time, it focuses
primarily on women and war in the Western world, with a
particular emphasis on American women from the American
Revolution to the present. Assigned readings, videos, guest

course entitle

speakers and energetic class discussion allow students to deepen
their understanding of women's challenges and successes at
the strategic, operational and tactical levels of war, and their
contributions to joint and multinational operations. As with
all classes at CGSC, "Women at War" encourages students to
think critically about their commitments and obligations as
professional military officers.
Guest speakers regularly include retired officers and military
academics such as Joyce DiMarco, from the Department of
Leadership, and Dr. LisaRe Brooks, a research psychologist
in the Leader Development Research Unit at the U.S. Army
Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences at
Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. In addition, civilian academics such
as Dr. Beth Bailey, University of Kansas, History Foundation
Distinguished Professor, and Dr. Rebecca Best, Department of
Political Science, University of Missouri, Kansas City, speak to
the class. While offering students a perspective on the questions
civilian scholars are asking about women and war, speakers
from area universities also strengthen CGSC's ties with local
intellectual resources and provide the visiting speakers with
insights into the CGSC experience. In Academic Year 2018,
speakers include Dr. John Hosler, Department of Military
History, who will talk to the class about women military leaders
and theorists of the Medieval period.

For more information about "Women at War" contact Dr. Valentine at janet.g.valentine.civ@mail.mil or Lt. Col. Johnson
at christopher.r.johnson60.mil@mail.mil.

12 - CGSC FOUNDATION NEWS | www.cgscfoundation.org

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Command and General Staff College Foundation News Fall 2017