Embedded Files
World War II saw the first widespread and sustained service by women in uniform in American military history. Military nursing expanded in scale and scope, and other opportunities were opened to women in the armed services.
Previously, we discussed how women served as camp followers in the American Revolution, and camp followers accompanied armies up through the Civil War. Just after 1900, each service developed a Nurse Corps, and recruited women as full-time nurses. These women were military employees and wore uniforms, but did not have military rank, pay, benefits, or a command structure like soldiers or sailors. During World War I, the Army and Navy recruited limited numbers of women in other capacities, such as telephone operators. The navy brought women closest to the status of men, with a rank , Yeomen (F), and pay similar to sailors. But aside from the Yeomen (F), women served with rather than in the Armed Forces.
In the 1930s and 1940s, an ideal among many Americans was that women should not work outside the home, but instead were homemakers: cook, clean, and care for children. In reality, women did get jobs outside their homes, but many fewer women had careers outside the home. Young, unmarried women often had jobs in textile factories, bakeries, or canneries. Schoolteachers were commonly women, and nurses were almost exclusively women. All these jobs usually paid less than any male equivalent, and opportunities for promotion were quite limited. In many cases, women were expected to resign if they were married. The prevailing assumption held by federal, state, and local government policymakers, most business leadership, and many in the general public was that men were the primary workers or "breadwinners" in a typical household, which was built around a married couple with children.
This civilian context influenced the Army and Navy's recruitment of women during World War II. Women's jobs within the military were limited to non-combat roles and units, and women were expected to leave the service after the war. But during the global conflict, the services expanded the role of women in their ranks. And the World War II experience led to a permanent establishment for women in the armed forces, beyond nursing.
Listen to each sound clip below. A text transcript is also available.
Listen to each sound clip below. A text transcript is also available.
The Nurse Corps
The Nurse Corps
You can view a transcript of this sound clip here:
Despite what this recruiting poster suggests, nurses close to battlefields wore combat uniforms, as African American nurses below demonstrate. National Archives Images.
Both Army and Navy nurses were taken prisoner by the Japanese in the Philippines in 1942. They continued to care for other POWs throughout the war and were liberated in 1945. Both services "regularized" nurses during the war, assigning them the same ranks and pay grades of male officers Since these women were POWs, they recieved their ranks upon liberation. National Archives and Naval Historical and Heritage Center Photos.
Both emergency medical care and aviation developed rapidly in World War II. Army and Navy air evacuation nurses were at the intersection of these. U.S. Air Force and Naval Historical and Heritage Photos.
Two WACs in high-altitude flight suits pose at the tail of a B-17 bomber, in January 1944. The Army Air Force was often the more glamorous branch of the Army in which to serve. U.S. Air Force Photo
Click through these recruiting posters, to see how they reflected changes in the Army's organization of women in the service. In 1943, the second "A" in WAAC was dropped, as women were no longer auxiliaries. Instead, they were soldiers. As their roles expanded, women found occupational opportunities that were not available to them in peacetime, civilian life.
WAVES and...just Marines.
WAVES and...just Marines.
You can view a transcript of this sound clip here:
All branches of the services explicitly stated that women's role in uniform was basically to free men for combat roles. A Marine Corps recruiting poster makes this explicit. USMC Archives.
Similar to WACs, women in the Navy (WAVES) and Marines did a variety of jobs that went beyond typical female civilian occupations. These ranged from weapons, motor vehicle, and aircraft repair, communications, weather forecasting, photography, parachute rigging, driving, cryptography, mapmaking, chemistry, and even gunnery instruction. Also similar to the Army, aviation branches seemed receptive to having women do maintenance and ground-handling jobs. As Historian Mary Stremlow explains, "Presumably because they were relative pioneers themselves, aviation leaders were less tradition-bound, and they enthusiastically asked for large numbers of women and were willing to assign them to technical fields." USMC Archives, and Naval Historical and Heritage Center.
Women in World War II
Women in World War II
In World War II, both the U.S. Army and Navy found women to be essential to their operations.
During the war, many servicemen and civilians opposed women in Army khaki or Navy blue. "Who will then do the cooking, the washing, the mending, the humble homey tasks to which every woman has devoted herself; who will nurture the children?" implored one congressman, who unsuccessfully opposed the program. Male soldiers (and their families) who had non-combat jobs did not appreciate anyone, WAACs or otherwise, "freeing"them to serve in combat units. Stereotypes circulated in the services, and found their way home through letters, depicting WAACs and WAVES as irresponsible, incompetent, and sexually promiscuous. Investigation by Congressmen in 1943 established that these rumors were not true, but also demonstrated that many in the public were more concerned about policing gender roles than supplying the services with more troops. Soldiers and Sailors who served with WAACs, WAVES, and women Marines were less likely to have hostile attitudes toward women in the service.
Members of congress continued to oppose an expanded role for women in the Armed Forces, but the Army and Navy's leadership generally came to value female troops. Early in the war Marine Corps Commandant Thomas Holcombe had opposed women in the Corps but in 1945 bluntly stated: "Since then I've changed my mind." Sixteen women were received Purple Hearts, awarded to those wounded by hostile forces. Over 560 women received the Bronze Star, awarded for exemplary service generally. Beyond these, tens of thousands of servicewomen performed day-to-day tasks that helped the vast, complicated U.S. military organizations succeed.
At war's end, the Army and Navy both demobilized rapidly, sending most men and women home within months. There was no official plan to permanently keep women in the services, although some remained in the services to assist with occupation duties overseas. In 1948, and despite opposition in Congress, the services received permission to recruit women on a peacetime basis for the same roles they performed during the war. Now women could be, to use the old fashioned term, "regulars."
The temporary, war-service women's corps paved the way for a permanent role of women in the U.S. military.
US Air Force Photo
Beyond their impact on the war effort, women's service in wartime made future women's service in the military seem practically possible. Naval Historical and Heritage Center.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse