Maj. Danelle Gamble, 40th Military Police Battalion (Detention) executive officer, was the speaker for the Women’s Equality Day observance, hosted by the Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth, Aug. 30 in Marshall Lecture Hall at the Lewis and Clark Center.
Gamble said she was honored to be asked to give remarks 101 years after the adoption of the 19th Amendment on Aug. 26, 1920. Women’s Equality Day is observed each year around Aug. 26 to commemorate.Gamble began her remarks saying that “counting women in” has only made the Army stronger. She spoke about some of the accomplishments of women who “broke glass ceilings and detached them-selves from sticky floors.”
Gamble said while her road to where she is now was clearer than it was for her predecessors, she nods to women like Ida B. Wells and Sara Bard Field. These suffragettes and their colleagues paved the way for the revolution in women’s rights movements.
Gamble said that the messaging and movement wasn’t over, noting that the 19th Amendment took 64 years to be ratified by every state, and for Mississippi that has been only 37 years, with the final approval in 1984.
Culturally, Gamble said, messaging from both men and women needed improvement as both groups were likely to count women out. She said stigmas on anatomy weakness, unit mentalities of disappointment of receiving female soldiers, and traditional stereotypes of the female homemaker were all common ways to count women out.
Gamble said most of these habits are done without malice and only out of the conditioning society has taught an acceptance toward.
Gamble said that women need to remember that they matter, have value and purpose.
She challenged every soldier to make a conscious effort to count women in.
“Women are created different but equal,” Gamble said. “Our nation is not complete until all Americans have equal liberties.”
Following her talking points, Gamble was presented with a certificate and coin from Combined Arms Center Commanding General Lt. Gen. Theodore Martin and CAC Command Sgt. Maj. Stephen Helton.
Martin said he would make sure to not only count Gamble in but other female soldiers as well.
For Gamble’s full remarks, visit the CAC Facebook page.
