America is a Senate-approval away from seeing its first female four-star general.

Lt. Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody has been nominated by President Bush to serve as head of the Army’s supply arm, reports The New York Times. If approved by the Senate, she will be the first woman to achieve that rank.

General Dunwoody, 55, currently a three-star general, has served 33 years in the military. She’s flown to the front lines in war zones and has jumped out of airplanes to ensure that troops are stocked with ammunition, tanks and fuel.

In her new role, she will lead the Materials Command of the Army, which supplies soldiers with military hardware, repairs armored vehicles and sustains combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

According to the Times, women make up about 14 percent of the 1.4 million people on active duty in the military. More than 100 women have died in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But the number of women at the very top, while growing, remains small. In the Army, women account for about five percent of the generals, according to Lt. Col. Anne Edgecomb, an Army spokeswoman. There are 15 one-star generals, three two-star generals and two three-star generals, including General Dunwoody.

Because four-star-general status has only been reached by men, her commanding new role would mark a major feat for women in the military. For decades, women have struggled to break what many describe as the "brass ceiling."

As the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Editorial Board put it in 2005, "Women have been allowed to serve in service, support and transportation units that support combat units. However, the underlying notion of keeping women in rear, support roles and away from the front lines is flawed if not downright archaic in modern conflicts in places such as Afghanistan and Iraq, where virtually nowhere is safe from attack."

Despite the obstacles General Dunwoody faced to pave her way through the male-dominated military, she firmly believes that the Army’s attitude is shifting toward gender equality.

"This nomination," she said in a statement, "only affirms what I have known to be true about the military throughout my career: that the doors continue to open for men and women in uniform."