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Pvt. Romay Davis, a 103-year-old World War II veteran from Alabama, received the first Lifetime Achievement Award at the 10th annual Women Who Shape The State event.
How a Maxwell lieutenant and future Supreme Court justice equalized pay for Armed Forces
Just Do Right. to make Maxwell Air Force Base a better place for all
Col. Eries L.G. Mentzer
Just Do Right.
That is exactly what Lieutenant Sharron Frontiero, now Sharron Cohen, did in 1970. As a physical therapist assigned to Maxwell Air Force Base, she refused to accept that the United States Air Force would not extend married female Airmen the same spousal benefits as married male Airmen.
At the time, a married man in the Armed Forces was automatically entitled to spousal benefits but a married woman in the Armed Forces had to prove that her husband was dependent on her for more than one-half of his support. So, Lieutenant Frontiero sued Secretary of Defense Elliott L. Richardson for equal pay and in 1973 the United States Supreme Court ruled that military benefits could not be paid differently based on gender.
Sharron Cohen
Sharron Frontiero was a young lieutenant in the Air Force when she first filed a lawsuit against the federal government on the basis of sex. It later came to the attention of a young Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who signed onto the case in 1972, setting up her first appearance before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Frontiero, now Sharron Cohen, was the plaintiff in
Frontiero v. Richardson, in which she sought a dependent s allowance for her husband. That same benefit is owed to wives of male members of the military, according to federal law. I was married, and I expected a housing allowance and I wasn t eligible for it because I was a woman, Sharron, 73, said in a recent StoryCorps interview recorded with her son Nathan, 41.