 Vietnam Women's Memorial photographed by Carol M. Highsmith | |
 | |
| 38°53′25″N 77°02′49″W / 38.8904°N 77.0469°W | |
| Location | West Potomac Park, Washington, D.C., U.S. |
|---|---|
| Designer | Glenna Goodacre (sculptor) George Dickie (landscape architect) Art Castings of Colorado (founder) |
| Material | Bronze (sculpture) Granite (base) |
| Length | 5.8 ft (1.8 m) |
| Width | 7.9 ft (2.4 m) |
| Height | 6.7 ft (2 m) |
| Dedicated date | November 11, 1993 |
| Dedicated to | American women in the Vietnam War |
| Website | Official website |
The Vietnam Women's Memorial is a memorial dedicated to the nurses and women of the United States who served in the Vietnam War. It depicts three uniformed women with a wounded male soldier to symbolize the support and caregiving roles that women played in the war as nurses and other specialists. It is part of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and is located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., a short distance south of the Wall and north of the Reflecting Pool. The statues are bronze and the base is made of granite. The United States Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission selected Glenna Goodacre to sculpt the memorial after previously rejecting the idea for a memorial to women.
Diane Carlson Evans, a former U.S. Army nurse, co-founded the Vietnam Women's Memorial Foundation (VWMF) in 1984 with two other veterans. It took years of lobbying and attending dozens of meetings for the memorial to finally be approved. With assistance from members of Congress, VWMF was granted permission in 1988 to erect the memorial, as long as the necessary funds were raised. At the dedication on Veterans Day in 1993, Vice President Al Gore and other dignitaries were in attendance, along with approximately 25,000 onlookers. Since then, there have been numerous anniversary gatherings at the memorial.