Approximately 85,000 WAVES served as officers and enlisted personnel in the U. S. Navy from mid-1942 to the end of World War II. These women performed a number of duties, including technical activities in intelligence, navigation, and aviation, as well as “traditional” women’s roles of office and clerical work. WAVES faced many of the difficulties with respect to acceptance by men and restrictions in their duties as did women serving in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) of the U. S. Army and the Women Aireorce Service Pilots (WASP), a quasimilitary organization working with the U. S. Army Air Forces. Like other women in the military, the WAVES had also to deal with civilian attitudes of hostility, condescension, and skepticism about their morals.
Women had served in private or semiofficial capacities for the U. S. Navy since the 19th century, at first almost exclusively in nursing. In 1917, Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels approved enlisting women in the naval reserve as yeoman (F) in order to release men from shore duty to service in the fleet. Eventually, 12,500 of these “yeomanettes” served in a number of departments such as intelligence and censorship, and held jobs as translators, draftsmen, electricians, and other specialties. Except for nurses, women were demobilized from the navy after World War I and were subsequently prevented from enlisting.
By 1940, with the increased fleet building program because of World War II, the navy faced a potential manpower shortage. Yet, the Navy Department was uncertain how to proceed. Many admirals did not want women to join at all. Other officers suggested that women join an auxiliary arm, not unlike the army’s Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (later the WAC). The navy’s aviation branch pushed for direct service for women. In early 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, after urging from his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, intervened in favor of including women in the navy. On July 30, 1942, Public Law 689 established the navy’s Women’s Reserve; Mildred McAfee, the president of Wellesley College, served as the first director of the WAVES. The act specified that women serve only on shore duty within the continental United States. As in 1917, the purpose in recruiting women was to release men for duty at sea by replacing them in shore stations.
Eligibility standards for the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) were more restrictive than for men in the navy. The minimum enlistment age was 20. Women with children under 18 were not accepted. The educational requirement for enlisted personnel was graduation from high school or technical training. Female officers had to be college graduates or have the equivalent years of experience. As a practical concern, physical requirements for women were less than those for men. Generally, WAVES were older than their male counterparts. Aerican Americans were rejected until FDR ordered them included in 1944, and even then only about 100 served. The navy maintained a more prudish outlook toward its women than for its men, and discharged WAVES for actions that violated the moral standards of the period. Even so, rumors circulated about their sexual promiscuity, both heterosexual and lesbian.
Initially, the navy believed that WAVES would be restricted to duties identified as “women’s jobs.” Yet, as men were shipped overseas, demands increased for WAVES to replace them in a wider range of assignments. By 1944, women held virtually every occupation outside of direct combat. These jobs included such diverse ones as radio operators, parachute riggers, aircraft engine mechanics, and navigation instructors. Some WAVES participated in classified projects such as manning long-range navigation stations, developing a navy night fighter, and code breaking of German U-boat radio traffic. Late in 1944, women were finally allowed to serve overseas at naval facilities in the Western Hemisphere and the territories of Hawaii and Alaska. Ultimately, some 4,000 WAVES went overseas, mostly to Hawaii.
By war’s end, some 85,000 WAVES and another 11,000 nurses, in the separate Navy Nurse Corps, served in the U. S. Navy. The chief of naval operations, Admiral Ernest J. King, praised their efforts. By one estimate, the WAVES had freed up enough sailors to man a large carrier task force of 25 ships. More importantly, the WAVES’ accomplishments and attitude had convinced the Navy leadership to retain them in the naval reserve beyond the demobilization at the end of the war. On June 12, 1948, President Truman signed the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act that established permanent places for women in all four branches of the armed services.
See also women’s status and rights.
Further reading: Julius A. Furer, Administration of the Navy Department in World War II (Washington, D. C.: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1959); Susan M. Hartmann, The Home Front and Beyond: American Women in the 1940s (Boston: Twayne, 1982).
—Robert J. Hanyok
World History
