Holm, Jeanne Marjorie, 1921–2010, U.S. military officer, the first female general in the U.S. air force, b. Portland, Oreg. Enlisting in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps in 1942, she soon joined (1943) the Women's Army Air Corps. The first women admitted (1952) to the Air Command and Staff School, she also attended Lewis and Clark College. In 1965 she became a full colonel (the highest rank a woman could attain at the time) and head of Women in the Air Force. By 1967, largely due to her efforts, restrictions on women's ranks were abolished and many specialties closed to women were opened. Holm also initiated numerous reforms that increased the parity of men and women in the air force. In 1971 she was promoted to brigadier general, becoming a major general just two years later. She retired in 1975 and later served as special assistant for women's programs in the Ford administration and held other posts in the Carter and Reagan administrations. She wrote Women in the Military: An Unfinished Revolution (1984, rev. ed. 1992) and In Defense of a Nation: Servicewomen in World War II (1998).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: U.S. History: Biographies
