Author: openjargon

• Hillary Clinton said that Democrats didn't do enough to stop the demise of Roe.
• "We didn't take it seriously, and we didn't understand the threat," she told The New York Times.
• Ahead of November, abortion and reproductive rights are top of mind for many voters.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in an interview for a forthcoming book, made some of her strongest remarks to date about the fall of Roe v. Wade, arguing that the Democratic Party underestimated the anti-abortion movement.

In advance of the June release of the book, "The Fall of Roe: The Rise of a New America," Clinton told The New York Times that Democrats believed that the court system and legal precedents would protect abortion rights — until the US Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that those rights were not protected by the Constitution.

"We didn't take it seriously, and we didn't understand the threat," Clinton, the party's 2016 presidential nominee, told the Times. "Most Democrats, most Americans, did not realize we are in an existential struggle for the future of this country."

"We could have done more to fight," she added.

The book, written by Times journalists Elizabeth Dias and Lisa Lerer, explores the decadeslong push to dismantle Roe v. Wade and the ramifications of its demise.

During the interview, Clinton lamented that Democrats were "taken by surprise" by the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision. She argued that she never became complacent over the potential for a conservative-led Supreme Court to reverse Roe.

"One thing I give the right credit for is they never give up," she told the Times. "They are relentless. You know, they take a loss. They get back up. They regroup. They raise more money."

"It's tremendously impressive the way that they operate," she continued. "And we have nothing like it on our side."

Since the fall of Roe, Democrats have benefited in elections across the country, with many independents and even some Republicans backing ballot measures protecting abortion rights. And Democratic candidates fared much better than predicted in the 2022 midterms in part because they supported abortion rights, a position largely in line with suburban voters who have dramatically moved away from a GOP now controlled by former President Donald Trump.

Democrats plan to use the issue against Trump this year, telling voters that it was his Supreme Court appointments that have now caused a patchwork of abortion laws across the country — with some states enacting near-total abortion bans and others expanding access.

Trump has sought to moderate his views on the issue. He criticized a near-total abortion ban in Arizona that has since been repealed by the legislature.

But Clinton is warning that the conservative push to restrict abortion further will not abate.

"More people have got to wake up because this is the beginning," she told the Times. "They really want us to just shut up and go home. That's their goal."

• Bette Nash, the world's longest-serving flight attendant, has died from cancer at age 88.
• Nash started her career in 1957 with Eastern Airlines. 
• She witnessed major changes in air travel, from the jet age to post-9/11 security measures.

The world's longest-serving flight attendant has died from cancer at the age of 88.

In a statement on X, formerly Twitter, American Airlines said: "We mourn the passing of Bette Nash, who spent nearly seven decades warmly caring for our customers in the air."

"She started in 1957 and held the Guinness World Record for longest-serving flight attendant. Bette inspired generations of flight attendants. Fly high, Bette," the post continues.

Nash never officially retired from her role with American Airlines. She died in hospice after a recent breast cancer diagnosis.

Nash got her first job as a flight attendant with Eastern Airlines — which later became American Airlines — in 1957, when Dwight D. Eisenhower was in the White House.

"You had to be a certain height, you had to be a certain weight. It used to be horrible. You put on a few pounds and you had to keep weighing yourself, and then if you stayed that way, they would take you off the payroll," Nash previously told ABC affiliate WJLA about the early days of her career.

She told ABC News in 2022 that a ticket for a flight between New York and Washington, DC, cost just $12 at the time, adding that passengers could even purchase life insurance from a vending machine before boarding their plane.

Over the course of her career, Nash saw huge changes to the aviation industry, including the effects of deregulation, the computer revolution, and the heightened security measures that came into effect following the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

She also saw flying become increasingly accessible following a boom in commercial air travel in the 1950s.

By 1955, more people in the US traveled by air than by train, and by 1957, airplanes had also replaced ocean liners as the preferred means of crossing the Atlantic, according to the National Air and Space Museum.

Just as Nash was starting out, jet passenger service also began in the US with the arrival of the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 airliners.

"The jet engine revolutionized air travel. Powerful and durable, jets enabled aircraft manufacturers to build bigger, faster, and more productive airliners," the National Air and Space Museum says on its website, adding that almost half of all Americans had flown by 1972.

In an X statement, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants said Nash "touched many with her warmth, dedication, and service."

"RIP, Bette. You won't be forgotten," it added.

• The baby-boomer "time bomb" is finally upon us, economists say.
• All boomers will be at least 65 soon, the generation's point of "peak burden" on the economy.
• Future generations can take solace in the fact that no boomer-size generations are in the making.

A time bomb has been ticking in the US.

It's the baby boomers, who as they age are approaching their "peak burden" years in regard to their drag on the economy and the resources of younger generations.

Boomers have already gotten tons of flak from younger people over the economy they've left Gen Zers, millennials, and Generation X to inherit. By the end of this year, all boomers — defined by the US Census Bureau as being born from 1946 to 1964 — will be 60 or older.

This means the youngest boomers are rapidly approaching retirement, and a bigger retirement population means more of a drag on the US economy, a burden that Barclays senior economist Jonathan Millar expects to stretch on for the next 20 years. 

"The peak burden," Millar told Business Insider, is when essentially all living baby boomers have hit retirement. "And we're getting there."

The date could fall sometime around 2029, when the youngest boomers will be 65, according to a Census Bureau report.

A population time bomb

It isn't the boomers' fault they were born. They didn't choose to be a mammoth-size generation that's left the US with a big and probably expensive retirement-age population.

And it isn't the case that baby boomers will derail economic growth nearly as much as, say, a full-blown recession, according to Dean Baker, an economist who described the baby boomers as a "time bomb" in a 1998 paper.

"Yes, it does create strains, but the idea was just some horrible catastrophe that loomed on the horizon," he said of the public dialogue on aging boomers. "It was really just craziness."

Still, the consequences of an aging population are real — and it's expected to weigh on the US over the coming decades. Older people are just one of the many factors weighing on Japan's economy, for instance, with people over 65 making up more than 25% of the overall population.

Baby boomers have already weighed on the US economy, and the cohort risks being a bigger drag in the coming years, Millar said.

Boomers are taking up the housing supply

Boomers are taking up a disproportionately large share of the housing supply compared with previous generations. That has been a pain for other homebuyers, as lower housing inventory has helped push up home prices.

The housing market saw its worst year of sales since 1995 in 2023, according to the National Association of Realtors. Existing homeowners have had little incentive to downsize their homes, many of which are fully paid off or financed at ultralow rates.

"It probably means we're headed for five or six years where baby boomers contribute to very strong housing demand, and we're going to have high house prices as a result," Millar warned.

Boomers also appear to be hogging the larger homes that millennials would otherwise be flocking to as they start families. In 2022, empty-nester baby boomers owned 28% of large homes in the US, a Redfin analysis found, double the share of millennial families.

Boomers are contributing to the labor shortage

The US has more open jobs than available workers. That gap is likely to widen as more boomers leave the workforce.

As of January, the Chamber of Commerce estimated that the economy was still down about 1.7 million workers compared with before the coronavirus pandemic. The labor market, meanwhile, is staring at 9.5 million job openings.

The labor shortage could eventually spell trouble for the economy, as a low supply of workers pushes up wages, which can stoke inflation.

Boomer retirees are also still demanding goods and services in the economy. If they aren't contributing anything in labor, that demand is also inherently inflationary, Millar added.

Boomers are a risk to the stock market

Retirees, who are less tolerant of stock-market volatility, also pose a downside risk to stocks. Boomers are more likely to sell if the US economy tips into a recession. That's a problem, considering that analysis by Rosenberg Research found people 55 and older account for 80% of stock-market ownership in the US.

"Retirees don't have the luxury to buy and hold through a market downturn," the economist David Rosenberg said in a recent note. "If a downturn does materialize, demographically induced selling is a force that could exacerbate the spiral powerfully, with the effects ricocheting into consumer spending."

Boomers will drain Social Security

Finally, boomers are set to collect a large amount in Social Security payments. The Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund is expected to be depleted in 2033, a year earlier than previously expected, the Social Security Administration said in a new report.

Politicians are averse to raising taxes or slashing spending on social programs, Millar noted, and are unlikely to let payments lapse. Instead, they'll most likely pay for the program by taking on more debt to keep funding retirees through old age.

"Any way you slice it, this is a burden on current and future generations of taxpayers," Millar added.

The silver lining is that there doesn't appear to be a baby-boomer redux in the making, Baker said. Millennials are a large generation, but after that, Gen Z and Alpha look to be much smaller, meaning there won't be a similar time bomb ticking for the economy.

"I think it's very unlikely that we're going to see another population boom like we had in the post-World War II years," Baker said. "If there's some set of events that lead to that, it's nothing I can see on the horizon."

Correction: February 5, 2024 — An earlier version of this story incorrectly described data from the National Association of Realtors. It found the housing market to have had its worst sales in 2023 since 1995, not ever.

This story was originally published in February 2024.

• Trump vowed to commute Ross Ulbricht's sentence at the Libertarian National Convention.
• Libertarians view Ulbricht's life sentence as a symbol of government overreach.
• Trump also promised to include a Libertarian in his cabinet if elected.

Donald Trump made an address at the Libertarian National Convention on Saturday, promising to commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht, the jailed founder of the infamous online drug marketplace Silk Road.

"If you vote for me, on Day One, I will commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht," Trump declared to enthusiastic applause from the crowd in Washington, DC. 

The move to highlight Ulbricht was strategically catered to Libertarian voters.

Ulbricht, now 40, who was imprisoned for life in 2015, is an unjustly imprisoned hero of the US libertarian movement.

The Libertarian Party, with its long-standing advocacy for drug legalization and criminal justice reform, has consistently lobbied for Ulbricht's release, viewing his life sentence as a symbol of government overreach.

Ulbricht became interested in libertarian values at university, according to a Wired report, where he discovered the ideas of Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises, an advocate of the moral purpose of free-market capitalism and staunch opponent of interventionism. Ulbricht embraced these ideas of uncompromised freedom, per Wired.

"When I created Silk Road, I wasn't seeking financial gain," Ulbricht's wrote in a heartfelt letter to his trial judge in 2015.

"I created Silk Road because I believed at the time that people should have the right to buy and sell whatever they wanted so long as they weren't hurting anyone else," he wrote.

In 2015, he was given life in prison without the possibility of parole. He was also fined $183,961,921.

Ulbricht is being held at the United States Penitentiary in Tucson.

The majority of goods sold on Silk Road were illegal hardcore drugs, said the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York at his trial.

"Silk Road was supposed to be about giving people the freedom to make their own choices, to pursue their own happiness," wrote Ulbricht. "While I still don't think people should be denied this right, I never sought to create a site that would provide another avenue for people to feed their addictions."

Trump, who was loudly booed and heckled during much of his speech at the Libertarian National Convention, did manage to partially win the audience around by committing to free Ulbricht.

Katherine Yeniscavich, a Libertarian Party national committee member, told Politico, "It's one of the things we wanted from his first term."

In addition to the Ulbricht pledge, Trump made further pledges, promising to include a Libertarian in his cabinet and others in senior administrative positions if elected.

• The Federal Reserve published its Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking this week.
• The percentage of parents with children under 18 who felt "financially okay" declined.
• It's the lowest percentage since 2015. Skyrocketing childcare costs are likely to blame.

The financial well-being of American parents with young children is plummeting, highlighting how unaffordable childcare costs have become.

The Federal Reserve published its annual Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking on May 21. The survey, which collected answers from 11,000 people in October 2023, examines the economic well-being of US households and potential financial risks.

While the report said people's overall financial well-being was "nearly unchanged" between 2022 and 2023, some groups "continued to experience financial stress at higher rates than others."

That included parents with children under 18.

The percentage of parents with children under 18 who felt "okay financially" dropped from 69% in 2022 to 64% in 2023.

The 2023 data point is a stark decline from 2021 when 75% of parents said they felt comfortable financially. Data from the Federal Reserve shows that parents haven't felt this financially insecure since 2015, when it recorded 65%.

Comparatively, the percentage of adults who don't have children under 18 and feel "okay financially" hasn't dipped below 70% in the last eight years.

The report doesn't give specific reasons for the growing financial concern, but the rising cost of childcare has been a national concern for years.

The cost of childcare has skyrocketed in the United States, making it difficult for families to maneuver the current economy.

"Childcare costs can be significant for parents," the Federal Reserve report says. "The median monthly amount that parents using paid care paid for childcare was $800. For those who paid for 20 or more hours of childcare each week, the median cost was $1,100."

Business Insider estimated that it could cost parents nearly $26,000 a year to care for one child in 2024 — a 41.5% increase from 2016. A 2024 Bank of America analysis also found that the United States has the second most expensive childcare system among developed countries.

That analysis, which ranked New Zealand No. 1, found that the average couple with two children spent more than 30% of their combined wages on childcare.

• Benjamin Netanyahu's son shared a video of an alleged masked reservist, reports said.
• His speech appears to threaten a mutiny of IDF soldiers in Gaza. 
• The IDF has opened a criminal investigation into the incident.

The son of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shared a video appearing to show an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reservist threatening a mutiny if the Israeli government did not push for "complete victory" over Hamas, The Times of Israel reported.

The IDF has since announced that it is opening a criminal investigation into the video, which was shared on Telegram by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's son, Yair, saying in a statement that it represents a "serious violation of IDF orders and IDF values, and constitutes a suspicion of criminal offences," per NBC News.

The man identifying himself as an Israel Defense Forces reservist is masked, holding a weapon, and standing in what appears to be ruins of a building with Hebrew graffiti on the wall nearby. It could not be verified where the video was filmed.

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the video is for you," said the alleged soldier.

"We reservist soldiers do not intend to hand the keys over to any Palestinian authority," the man says in the video, per The Times of Israel. "We do not intend to give the keys to Gaza to any entity — Hamas, Fatah, or any other Arab entity. Reservist soldiers are behind you, and we want to win."

The alleged reservist also demanded that Yoav Gallant, Israel's defense minister, resign.

"Yoav Gallant, you can't win the war. Quit," the man said, adding that 100,000 reservists would place themselves at the border and refuse to move, per reports.

We will show you what a victory is, and we will show you how real Jews win," he said.

Benjamin Netanyahu's office issued a statement:: "The Prime Minister is consistent in this position; he completely rejects any display of refusal to serve from any side whatsoever and expects all official agencies to deal with it uniformly."

The release of the 'mutiny" footage follows another video that circulated on social media earlier this week that appeared to show an Israeli soldier in Gaza burning a copy of the Quran, Islam's holiest book. The IDF said on Friday it was investigating the alleged incident, said The Times of Israel.

Netanyahu's son, Yair, 32, who is believed to live in a luxury apartment near Miami, Florida, is a controversial figure in Israel.

The Times of Israel described him as "a prolific right-wing agitator on social media." He was alleged to have sway over his father and had once influenced his decision to sack a minister in Netanyahu's government.

The video furor comes after the International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor formally requested arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant earlier this month.

Karim Khan said he had "reasonable grounds to believe" that the two men, who have been in charge of Israel's offensive in Gaza since Hamas' October 7 attacks, "bear criminal responsibility" for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Khan also issued arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders.

Business Insider contacted the IDF for comment.

• Elisa moved from Paris into a luxury communal house with 15 other people in New York City.
• For $2,000 a month, she gets a fully furnished room and common spaces in a three-floor townhouse.
• She loves the sense of community with her roommates and doesn't plan to leave anytime soon.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Elisa, a partnership manager and business developer living in New York City who asked to be identified by only her first name to protect her employment. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I moved from Paris to New York in 2022 when I was headhunted for my job at a French startup. It wasn't planned, and everything happened quickly.

I tried to look for an apartment while still in Paris, but deep diving into Facebook groups didn't fill me with confidence, and I was worried about being scammed.

I heard about Cohabs from one of my best friends from France, who lived in one of the houses. Cohabs are share houses in cities around the world, and there are a few houses each in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

My friend offered for me to stay with her for two weeks so I could look for apartments, but then I fell in love with other people who lived there. It helped me make friends straight away.

There was an opening, so I moved into the same three-floor townhouse as my friend in Harlem. I love it.

You're screened before you can move in

The Cohabs team ensures you have the right vibe and are there for the right reasons before you can sign a lease.

The questions were fairly straightforward: They asked my age, the reason I moved to New York, how I heard about Cohabs, what are my previous experiences with flatmates, and what are my hobbies.

You can sign a lease for six months or one year, and I chose one year.

House rules are written into the lease

The lease has some things you have to agree to that are above and beyond a typical lease agreement.

We agree to pay our rent on time, be respectful of others, clean our room when we move out to receive our deposit back, keep common spaces organized, wash our dishes, organize for the team of housekeepers, respect each other, let our housemates know when we invite people over, take out the trash, and reduce, reuse, and recycle.

The rent is fair to me for what I get

I pay $2,000 a month for my 135-square-foot fully-furnished room, which includes all utility costs.

I feel it's fair when you consider that you're renting a room plus the huge common spaces. Each floor has its own furnished open kitchen and living room. I share a bathroom with one flatmate, but there are different bathroom arrangement options based on your room.

The house feels super homey — it's clean, and the furniture is vintage and really nice. A housekeeping team comes once a week.

There's also an app to submit repair requests, so if you have a problem with the coffee machine, for example, you can create a ticket, and a member of the Cohabs team will come and help you fix it.

The shared spaces are big: We have a huge backyard with a barbecue, a rooftop with tables, a huge television room with sofas, a gym, and a laundry room.

16 of us live in the house

It sounds wild when I say I have 15 roommates, but it feels like I'm on "Friends" the TV show. I love having a little family in New York and friends I can count on.

Many of us are very far from our loved ones and are fairly new to New York. We have Americans, Spanish, English, and French among our nationalities. The age range is 23 to 32, which sounds like a lot but works well.

Every night when I come home from work, people are in the kitchen making food and having meals together. That makes me really happy.

This feels better than a typical share house

I was super nervous when I moved to New York because I only knew one person, so moving into the house was a relief. My number one fear was feeling lonely, so this was the perfect solution.

I've lived in shared flats and houses before, but the sense of community here is much stronger. The Cohabs team really emphasizes this — on the first Sunday of every month, they send us a brunch for everyone to bond over. They also organize events like going rock climbing together.

The bottom line is respect

We're adults, so we know how to live in a community and respect each other. I haven't seen any weird fights or drama.

Living together has been easy, as we have similar lifestyles, but if you want to have people over, you do need to warn everyone else.

My family came to visit from Europe, and my parents were impressed with the house. They stayed in a hotel, but if my brother came alone, he probably would've stayed with me in the house.

We've started some of our own traditions

Last Christmas, we put up a tree and hung pictures of our heads instead of ornaments.

For New Year's Eve, we all bought a tiny bottle of Champagne and told each other our goals for the year. Every time one of us achieves that goal, they get to pop their bottle of Champagne.

My family and friends have asked me if at some point I want to go and live in a more conventional place. The truth is I really don't.

• Calli Nguyen, 24, was fired from her job as a director of digital marketing after less than a week.
• Nguyen says mental health and employee respect in the workplace is important.
• She emphasizes Gen Z's unwillingness to settle for toxic work environments.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Calli Nguyen, a 24-year-old social media marketer from Baton Rouge, LA, about getting fired after less than one week of work. It's been edited for length and clarity.

Before I started as the director of digital marketing for a medical spa, I gave my boss the benefit of the doubt because I just wanted a job. What could go wrong?

Turns out, everything.

While I've worked many jobs, this director role was my first paid full-time position in digital marketing. I rationalized that maybe I was going through a learning curve; or that I just had the jitters. But on the third day of work, when I left my desk for a quick mental health break, I was fired on the spot. To be fair, I saw the red flags but ignored them.

I read the negative Glassdoor and Google reviews left by former clients and employees. One review said that five employees quit within two weeks. The review underscored that employers should not mistreat their employees regardless of their age. Also, before I even started the job, I agreed to change my role from client care coordinator to director of digital marketing without changing my hourly pay of $16. Yet, immediately after I was fired, I felt like a failure.

I now feel that getting fired after less than a week of employment was a blessing in disguise. The experience taught me that not every opportunity is a good opportunity. But more importantly, protecting my mental health and having employers see the value in me is more important than earning money.

My boss refused to take my advice

I didn't think it was a big deal that my former boss wanted me to switch gears to social media marketing after I applied on Indeed for an office coordinator role. Afterall, I did list my social media marketing skills on my résumé.

After I accepted the new role over the phone with her general manager, I looked forward to honing in on my creative skills while helping a small, independent business grow and gain more customers. But how can I help someone who refuses to listen to my advice?

My boss wanted her social media marketing to look a certain way: showcasing stock photos of attractive women with outdated fonts.

I showed her the analytics on the low-performing social media posts and that I knew how to update her online presence to gain more customers, but she refused to absorb anything I had to say. So I followed her creative lead — until I became overwhelmed by her demands.

I was shocked to find out that my boss wanted more from me than what I produced

On my third day, I started a project to build posts for the company's social media accounts and research her competitors' special offers. I presented everything she asked for. While she seemed happy with my social posts and the offers that I found, she needed more from me.

Without warning, she asked which products the other medical spas used. I spiraled into a tailspin.

I didn't know anything about specific products in the medical spa industry. I didn't even know what she wanted me to research. She never brought up my level of product knowledge in our initial interview, nor did anyone ask me to find out about the competitors' products when explaining the project to me.

She said I should've known to research the different products used by our competitors. Then, she launched into a list of other deliverables that I should've done. After a few minutes of her feedback, I felt overwhelmed.

Mental health and respect at work are mandatory

I stood up and told her I needed to take a break. So, I walked toward the front door.

She tried stopping me. I didn't give in. I already vowed to never let anyone disrespect me at work. I said, "Ma'am, respectfully, I need to step outside and take a breather. I'll be back in a few minutes."

She fired me, saying that I wasn't going to work out for her. I thought to myself, "Oh, awesome," as I tried to keep my demeanor professional. I was so pissed off.

To be fair, I wanted to quit, so she got me before I got her. As I approached the front desk, I looked at the general manager and trainer and told them that I was fired. The general manager offered me a recommendation letter despite all the drama.

I said goodbye to my coworkers after 2.5 days

I felt like a failure after two days and about six hours of work on day three. I said goodbye to my coworkers and told them that I was fired as I walked out the door for the last time. But I really felt depressed too.

I texted "9-1-1" to my mom while she was at work and started sobbing on the phone with her in the parking lot. I kept apologizing to her for being a failure, even though I knew I worked in a toxic environment.

Afterward, I spent a month in bed while working remotely for another company.

I've been in the workforce since I was about 16 or 17 years old and have worked with various age groups. That said, some Gen Z workers are lazy and unreliable, and I've seen the TikToks that say that Gen Z is rude, too. At the same time, we want what everyone else wants: for our employers to value us, to enjoy our jobs and work environment, and to receive proper training so that we'll thrive.

Gen Z knows that there's somewhere better for us

While the older generations might have put up with toxic work environments, we're speaking up for ourselves and not settling.

I'm more than happy to receive constructive criticism, as long as the feedback does not cross the line into degradation and disrespect. The workforce continuously changes, and employers must be open to flexibility, growth, and change.

Gen Z knows that there's somewhere better for us if we don't get what we want out of a job — that's why I'm working at a reputable advertising agency that respects me, advocates for mental health, and cultivates a fun and enjoyable work environment.

As an employee, it's not on me if a boss doesn't want to learn or be flexible. I can't help a boss to grow, and I can't grow in a toxic environment, right?

If you're a Gen Z worker and want to share your story, email Manseen Logan at mlogan@businessinsider.com.

Updated May 7, 2024 — An earlier version of this story did not clarify that the director role was Calli Nguyen's first paid full-time digital marketing job, not her first time working in digital marketing.

• Women have been serving in the military, officially or unofficially, since the Revolutionary War.
• Just as there are famous men who are veterans, there are famous women vets as well.
• "Golden Girl" Bea Arthur was one of the first members of the Marine Corps Women's Reserve.

Women have been an important part of the armed services since the beginning, with icons like Harriet Tubman participating in the Civil War. While being female in a traditionally male-dominated space hasn't always been easy, these women have stuck it out and served their countries.

In 2022, the US Department of Defense reported the percentage of women serving in active and reserve capacities was growing. In 2021, 17.3% of active-duty roles and 21.4% of the National Guard and reserves were women, up slightly from the year before, it reported, citing the 2021 Demographics Profile of the Military Community.

Ahead of Memorial Day this year — the official marker of summer and one of the biggest holidays in the US — here are 12 famous women who have served in the military around the world, including Bea Arthur, Queen Elizabeth, and more.

 Melina Glusac contributed to a previous version of this article.

Harriet Tubman was a military leader and Union spy during the Civil War.

Most know Harriet Tubman for her groundbreaking work with the Underground Railroad and, later, as an abolitionist, but as National Geographic reported, Tubman was also an integral part of the Civil War.

In 1863, Tubman and Colonel James Montgomery led a group of soldiers in freeing slaves from plantations in South Carolina, making Tubman the first woman in US history to lead a military expedition, according to National Geographic.

Her work continued as a spy and recruiter for the Union Army. This operation was so covert that only President Lincoln knew about it.

Tubman received compensation for her military contributions decades later, in 1899. Thomas B. Allen, the author of "Harriet Tubman, Secret Agent," called Tubman "one of the great heroines of the Civil War."

Queen Elizabeth was a military truck driver during World War II.

Queen Elizabeth was only 18 years old when she begged her father, King George VI, to take part in helping out during World War II. 

She joined the Women's Auxiliary Territorial Service in England that same year and was known as "Second Subaltern Elizabeth Windsor," according to the National Archives.

While serving, the young queen drove military trucks and trained as a mechanic — making her, to this day, the only female member of the Royal Family to enter the armed forces. 

NASA's Eileen Collins was one of the first female pilots in the Air Force — and in space.

Eileen Collins broke several barriers during her career: Not only was she NASA's first female shuttle commander, but at 23, she became the Air Force's first female flight instructor, according to the agency.

She joined the Air Force in 1978, becoming one of the first four women to go through pilot training at Vance Air Force Base in Enid, Oklahoma. 

She wrote in Time, "The Air Force was testing whether women could succeed as military pilots. We obviously were living in a fishbowl — everyone knew who we were, our personal business, our test scores and our flight performance. My philosophy was to be the best pilot I could be."

Her military training directly led her to test-pilot school, where she "knew" she would go on to be the first female space shuttle pilot — and succeeded in doing so.  

"Golden Girl" Bea Arthur was one of the first members of the Marine Corps Women's Reserve.

Before she was Dorothy Zbornak on "The Golden Girls," Emmy Award-winning actor Bea Arthur was a Marine.

As reported by The Daily Beast, Arthur enlisted into the Women's Reserve when she was just 21 years old, first serving as a typist and truck driver. She worked her way up to staff sergeant and was honorably discharged in 1945. 

Official documents show that Arthur's supervisors thought she was "argumentative," which is not a far cry from the feisty persona she became known for on both "The Golden Girls" and "Maude."

"Stranger Things" actress Jennifer Marshall served in the US Navy for five years.

Before Jennifer Marshall scored the role of Susan Hargrove on Netflix's hit show "Stranger Things," she served in the United States Navy from ages 17 to 22. 

According to Marshall's website, during her time in the service, she was a forklift operator, aircraft handler, and logistics specialist, and also worked for the USS Theodore Roosevelt's Sexual Assault Victim Intervention (SAVI) program. 

Marshall was awarded many honors and medals for her time in the Navy. Now, in addition to acting, she works with Pin-Ups For Vets, a nonprofit organization that aids hospitalized veterans and deployed troops.

Food Network star Sunny Anderson was in the Air Force.

Anderson, who hosts "The Kitchen," "Cooking for Real," and "Home Made in America," grew up around the military because of her parents. As an adult, she enlisted in the US Air Force as a radio broadcaster and journalist, working in Seoul, South Korea, and in San Antonio. 

"I knew that there were radio stations, television stations, newspapers, and magazines, for the military, by the military, and I wanted to be a part of that," Anderson told ABC News in 2013.

She also wanted to train in something that would be useful when she left the military.

"My transition from the Air Force started before I even got in the Air Force," she said.

Radio talk show host Robin Quivers was a captain in the Air Force.

Robin Quivers has co-hosted "The Howard Stern Show" for over 30 years, but before that, she served as a captain in the US Air Force.

Quivers got her degree in nursing from The University of Maryland and put it to use by joining the military as a second lieutenant after college. She quickly climbed the ranks, and when she was discharged in 1978, her official title was captain, according to Biography.com.

She served as a reserve in the Air Force until 1990, per military records, after which she fully pivoted to her career in radio. But Howard Stern hired her for his show in 1981, which means that Quivers — though she was "inactive" — was still technically serving while she was on the air.

Actress Zulay Henao served in the US Army for three years.

Colombian-American actress Zulay Henao has appeared on the show "Army Wives," but few know that she herself served in the US Army before becoming an actress.

Henao enlisted after completing high school and, after three years of serving, went on to enroll at the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts.

She previously spoke to the paparazzi about her time in the military, saying: "I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing, and I wouldn't have the perspective I have of the world, if it weren't for the Army."

Olympic medalist Shauna Rohbock was in the National Guard.

Shauna Rohbock is an Olympic bobsledder and won the silver medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy. But before that, according to Team USA, Rohbock joined the Utah Army National Guard and was part of the National Guard Outstanding Athlete Program.

Olympian Amber English competed while still in the military — she won gold in women's skeet shooting at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

At her first Olympics, First Lt. Amber English took gold with an Olympic record score of 56, NBC reported. Technically not yet a veteran, she's a logistics officer and member of the Army Marksmanship Unit, according to Military.com.

After English's win, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin congratulated her on Twitter, now known as X.

"Your country is extremely proud of you today, and I'm so glad you're representing us," he wrote.

She joins an illustrious list of medal winners, both male and female, with military backgrounds.

"Wonder Woman" Gal Gadot served in the Israel Defense Forces for two years.

After Gal Gadot was crowned Miss Israel in 2004, and before she became Wonder Woman in 2017, she served her mandatory two years in the IDF. During Gadot's assignment, she worked as a "physical fitness specialist," teaching things like gymnastics and calisthenics to the soldiers, Pop Sugar reported.

Pro-Palestine groups have criticized her service, as well as her support of the Israeli military and cause in social media posts.

"I think much of it comes from ignorance and people not understanding what most people do in the army in Israel or what I did in the army during my service in the military," she told The Jakarta Post in May 2021. She added: "Being an Israeli and going to the army is an integral thing. It's something you have to do. It's mandatory."

Ruth Westheimer, better known as the sex therapist Dr. Ruth, trained as a sniper in the IDF.

Dr. Ruth is a Holocaust survivor, and after World War II ended, she moved as a teenager to what would become Israel. During her time there, she trained as a sniper due to her small size.

She told The New Yorker in 2013, "I have no idea what the experience would be if I had to show it. But I was a very good sniper."

• Jhonathan Vazquez moved from Houston to Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2021.
• The first-generation immigrant was seeking a more affordable cost of living and less traffic.
• Vazquez said he's fallen in love with Tulsa's thriving entrepreneurial scene and arts offerings.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jhonathan Vazquez, 34, the cofounder and COO of Titan Intake, a healthcare referral startup. He moved from Houston, Texas, to Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2021 as part of the latter's incentive program to entice more remote workers.

I'm a first-generation immigrant. My mother came to this country when she was seven months pregnant with me and I was blessed to be born here in the USA. We lived in my aunt's garage for a couple of years until my father was able to get us a small home in Houston.

It was a very humble upbringing. I was the first in my family to have a corporate job.

I met my wife in my early 20s. We moved to downtown Houston. Both of our jobs were in the city, so we lived in a high-rise apartment. But there's a big homelessness issue in Houston, and I wanted something a bit safer for my wife to be able to walk the dogs.

So we moved again, this time to a Houston area called River Roads. I started spending a lot of time commuting to work. We wanted to buy a house in Houston, but finding one that suited our lifestyle that we could also afford would have been tough. We would have had to move outside the city.

During COVID, my wife's company went under. I was working in healthcare doing joint ventures and acquisitions, and my boss allowed me to go completely remote.

My wife found a program called Tulsa Remote, which is a $10,000 stipend to bring remote workers to the city. The goal is also to increase diversity in the city's talent pool.

To be honest, we had never heard much of Tulsa before. The extent of my Tulsa knowledge was when Chandler moved there in a "Friends" episode.

I saw the acceptance rate for the Tulsa Remote program was low, but I figured we had nothing to lose.

I went through the interview process and got accepted

The Tulsa Remote program wanted people who wanted to be a part of Tulsa's community. It isn't just a stipend. It also sets you up with all these events in the city.

My wife and I love going to the opera, soccer, baseball, and basketball games. When we came and toured Tulsa we saw the city had many things we liked, including museums and a great ballet.

We made the move in January 2021.

The cost of living in Tulsa is ridiculously low. The city is a lot smaller than Houston but still has everything a big city has to offer. And there's no commute. Everything's within 10 to 15 minutes of driving.

One of my favorite things is that Tulsa has all four seasons. In Houston, it's just hot and humid. But here, there's a real winter, summer, spring and fall.

Here in Tulsa, we rent a house with a backyard. We just open the door, and the dogs have a yard. My wife got pregnant two years into our Tulsa journey and had our beautiful daughter. We would have had to move outside the city if we were still in Houston. But in Tulsa, we can afford to stay.

We also pay much less for gas because we don't have to drive 20 miles to get anywhere like we did in Houston. We also have noticed big savings in our housing, too. We're really happy where we're renting, but now that we have our daughter, we're looking to buy a house.

The entrepreneurial community in Tulsa is great

Tulsa Remote helped set me up with the connections to start my company. About a year and a half after we moved here, I saw something special happening in the entrepreneurship scene and wanted to be a part of it.

I met my company's cofounder, and we started Titan Intake in May 2022. We use AI to automate referrals. We've been able to create something special because of the community that exists here. We raised our friends and family around here in Tulsa. An incubator in the city helped us acquire our first clients.

Since then, the sky has been the limit, and we've continued to grow. Thanks to our app, about 76,000 patients have been seen, and more than 100 doctors use it. We recently closed our pre-seed round of $1.3 million.

Tulsa has a lot of programs to help entrepreneurs with non-dilutive capital, from their first idea to the MVP (minimum viable product) phase. That community is really strong here, especially for minority founders like myself. The community is about collaboration and not competition.

Tulsa is also taking steps to become a thriving tech scene. It was designated a tech hub earlier this year. There are a lot of programs that are trying to push it in that direction.

If people want to start an innovative venture, Tulsa is a great place to do that. The city really helps minority founders get their feet off the ground.

We love it here

In my wildest dreams I never thought I would live in Tulsa and have a startup and a daughter born here.

I definitely miss the cuisine in Houston. It's so diverse, and things actually stayed open past midnight. I miss my family, too. And we miss the easy access to flights. Now, we have to drive to Dallas when we want to visit my family in Mexico.

But we see ourselves staying in Tulsa for at least five to 10 years. We want to continue to grow here.