Born: 17 October 1917, United States
Died: 19 July 1996
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women creator Allison Tyra’s book Uncredited: Women’s Overlooked, Misattributed, and Stolen Work.
While women like Schlafly often appear to be zealots, there is also the hyper-practical ruthlessness that some people, regardless of gender, will simply do whatever they need to do to succeed—if that means subjugating others, that’s what they’ll do. During World War II, the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) was a civilian organisation, whose members were United States federal civil service employees. WASPs later fought for recognition and benefits that acknowledged their military service. In 1977, Dorothy L. Starbuck became the first woman to lead the Veterans Administration, and almost immediately she argued that WASPs were not entitled to veterans’ benefits, because they were civilians, even though the women had been subject to military discipline, assigned top secret missions and many members were awarded service ribbons after their units were disbanded. Starbuck herself had been in the Women’s Army Corps—the women’s branch of the U.S. Army.