Ann E. Dunwoody ’75, the nation’s first woman four-star general, is featured in a special project by Time as one of 46 influential women who are changing the world.
Her inspiring life story was recognized in “Firsts: Women Who Are Changing the World,” which highlights pioneers in fields such as science, religion, media, politics, the arts and sports. The list of includes luminaries like Oprah, Serena Williams and Melinda Gates.
Time published the collection of stories as a book on Sept. 19. Dunwoody was also featured in a video clip.
“Throughout my career, I found that we want the best and the brightest on our team, whether you’re male or female,” Dunwoody told Time. “The best athletes, the best shooters. And when you can run faster than the guys, when you can do more pushups, they don’t look at you and say, ‘Oh, we don’t want you on our team.’ They go, ‘Wow! We want you on our team because we need the best.’”
Eighteen months into her Army career, Dunwoody went to the United States Army Airborne School, where she was chastised for wearing hair pins and barrettes. Rather than cut her hair, she opted to affix it to her head with duct tape. It was one of many examples of challenges Dunwoody faced as she rose through the ranks.
“I’ve never worked for a woman,” Dunwoody said. “I’ve only worked for men who either believed in me or didn’t. Fortunately, most of them were advocates for me and the others I tried to make believers by not lowering my standards. I didn’t look at myself as a woman in uniform. I looked at myself as a soldier.”
Dunwoody’s Army career was marked by a number of firsts for a female. In 1992, she was the first to command a battalion in the 82nd Airborne Division. In 2000, she was named the first general officer at Fort Bragg, N.C. Dunwoody became the first to lead the Combined Arms Support Command when she was promoted in 2004.
And on Nov. 14, 2008, Dunwoody was named a four-star general in a ceremony at the Pentagon; the first woman to ever achieve that Army rank. She was joined by her husband, Craig Brotchie, retired Air Force colonel, and her father, Harold Dunwoody, who had retired as a brigadier general in the Army in 1973.
Dunwoody came from a military family. Her brother, her father, her grandfather and her great-grandfather all attended the U.S Military Academy in West Point, N.Y.
Dunwoody, however, loved sports and dreamed of being a coach and a physical education teacher. SUNY Cortland was the perfect fit, as Dunwoody had the opportunity to participate in gymnastics and women’s tennis as she studied for a teaching career.
The Women’s Army Corps held a recruiting event on campus during Dunwoody’s junior year. Qualified applicants were sent to a four-week Army introduction program and then advanced to an 11-week officer orientation course. Those who completed the orientation were commissioned as second lieutenant and required to serve a two-year commitment in the Army. The $500 monthly stipend during her senior year was what sold Dunwoody on the idea, which she thought would be a 24-month detour from teaching and coaching.
But Dunwoody never left the Army, and served an incredibly successful 38-year career.
Dunwoody retired in 2012 and lives in Tampa, Fla. She gets a steady flow of letters, particularly from young girls, who thank Dunwoody for her perseverance in opening a career avenue for generations of women to come.
“Paving the way was a journey,” Dunwoody said. “I was the first but I won’t be the last.”