Commentary: Female general shatters brass ceiling

Editor's note: Campbell Brown anchors CNN's "Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull" at 8 p.m. ET Mondays through Fridays. She delivered this commentary during the "Cutting through the Bull" segment of Friday night's broadcast.

(CNN) -- Tonight, our "cutting through the bull" is a Friday first, one we are thrilled to celebrate.

The Pentagon's elite club of four-star generals welcomed a new member Friday, Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody.

At her ceremony Friday, she said, "I am honored to be joining your four-star bench of general officers -- an extraordinary band of brothers who have the responsibility of guiding our nation's Army and its incredible soldiers into the future."

That particular band of brothers has welcomed its first sister. Watch Campbell Brown's commentary »

Ann Dunwoody has become the first female four-star general in history.

In a year where we saw some very public battles to crack the glass ceiling in politics, Dunwoody quietly shattered the military's "brass" ceiling.

Women make up only about 14 percent of the active duty force, with an even smaller fraction at the top.

One male general was quoted as saying that given Dunwoody's extraordinary accomplishments in the military, "It's too bad that the focus with this promotion will be on her gender."

We do applaud her accomplishments, but when you are the first in the male-dominated world that is the military, that in and of itself is an accomplishment that we also think is still worth noting and celebrating.

Gen. Dunwoody, congratulations.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Campbell Brown.

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