Women are enabled to serve in every branch, combat role and rank as men, yet one barrier still looms in the fight for equality. In the history of the U.S. Armed Forces not once has a base been named after a woman. Further, installations named after supporters of secession, apartheid and slavery have been allowed to remain in spite of this fact.

There currently are 10 installations named after defeated generals of the former Confederacy.

As former Army General and CIA Director David Petraeus writes, the "'Home of the Infantry' was named for Henry L. Benning, a Confederate general who was such an enthusiast for slavery that as early as 1849 he argued for the dissolution of the Union and the formation of a Southern slavocracy1."

The Secretary of the Army made it clear in 2020 that those bases could soon be renamed2. That inclination went ignored, but may soon see new initiative under a new administration.

If the installations currently honoring fallen enemies of the U.S. are renamed, using these bases to honor courageous American women soldiers will bring the Army into a new era of equality.

Here are 10 women heroes whose names deserve to take that honor:

• Deborah Samson - Revolutionary War hero
• Sarah Emma Edmonds - Civil War hero
• Mary E. Clarke - First major general in the United States Army
• Edith Nourse Rogers - The angel of Walter Reed
• Elsie S. Ott - The first woman to receive the U.S. Air Medal
• Cathay Williams - First documented African American woman in the U.S. Army
• Lori Piestewa - the first American Indian woman to die serving the U.S. Armed Forces
• Col. Ruby Bradley - Hero of World War II and Korean War
• Charity Adams Earley: First African American woman Army officer
• Harriet Tubman: National hero, Army scout and spy

The U.S. Army first allowed women to enlist in 1948, but many had service experience before then as cooks, nurses, spies or codebreakers. Not until 2013 were the barriers to combat positions removed. Today, more than 181,000 women serve in the Army, many of them inspired by the stories of those heroes who paved the way for them to fight3.

It's time we honor their sacrifices as best we can. Sign the petition below and demand the Department of Defense remove the names of Confederate Generals from U.S. Army bases and rename them after heroic women.

More on this issue:

1. David Petraeus, The Atlantic (9 June 2020), "Take the Confederate Names Off Our Army Bases."
2. Laura Seligman, Politico (8 June 2020), "Army reverses course, will consider renaming bases named f or Confederate leaders."
3. U.S. Army, (11 March 2020), "U.S. Army celebrates women's contributions and service."