Analysis of Women in the Military Women have been compared to the frailty and beauty of ripe apricots in modern poetry; the reference could be construed as sexual. However, in spite of their frailty and beauty, women have served in combat positions in one capacity or another since the beginning of the United States, long before the establishment of the Army Nurse Corps in 1901. Many women willingly entered the pits of battle, disguised as men and using male names in past wars. With growing numbers of women in the military and their roles in Desert Storm, the Persian Gulf War, Somalia, and Bosnia, there is increasi