Hardin, Frieda Mae

▪ 2001

Frieda Mae Green 

      American naval “yeomanette” (b. Sept. 22, 1896, Eden Valley, Minn.—d. Aug. 9, 2000, Livermore, Calif.), enlisted in the Naval Reserve in 1918, at a time when many women were denied the vote. She worked as a clerk at the Norfolk (Va.) Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Va., from September 1918 to March 1919, a year before all yeomanettes (formally yeomen [f], for “female”) were released from duty. She was feted as a symbolic trailblazer of women in the military when she spoke at the dedication in 1997 of the Women in Military Service for America Memorial at Arlington (Va.) National Cemetery. Hardin, who was applauded with three standing ovations, exhorted women intrigued by military careers to “go for it!”

* * *