WAVES: Women in the WW2 US Navy
In 1919, a small group of women served with the United States Navy as nurses, answering to male officers. 23 years later, in early Aug 1942, female officer Naval Reserve Lieutenant Commander Mildred McAfee was commissioned into the US Navy amidst World War II to head up the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service program (WAVES). The use of the word "emergency", however, signified that when the effort to resurrect female service was in the planning stages, US Navy brass thought female service would cease when the emergency, or the war, came to and end. The reason for that was due to political resistance from many who did not believe women had a place in the US Navy, and for the program to take place, creative intrigue had to be used. Despite the resistance from conservative officers, however, the demand was clearly there; for example, as early as Jan 1942, the Office of Naval Intelligence was recruiting female college students. Even as President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Navy Women's Reserve Act into law on 30 July 1942, little did people know that female service in the US Navy would become something that would last far beyond the "emergency".
By mid-1943, 27,000 American women served in the WAVES program. While their WW1 counterparts served only as nurses and secretaries, these WW2-era women took up far more responsibilities. Secretarial and clerical jobs still made up a large portion of WAVES positions, but thousands of WAVES personnel performed other jobs such as aviation mechanics, photographers, control tower operators, and intelligence personnel. In late 1944, the WAVES program began accepting African American women at the ratio of one black woman for every 36 white women enlisted in the WAVES program. By the end of the war, over 84,000 women served in WAVES with 8,000 female officers, which constituted 2.5% of the US Navy's personnel strength.
After the war, the US Congress passed the Women's Armed Services Integration Act (Public Law 625) on 12 Jun 1948, allowing women to gain permanent status in all military branches of the United States, which put the WAVES program into obsolescence (although people still referred to female members of the Navy as a member of WAVES well into the 1970s). After the passage of the Women's Armed Services Integration Act, on 7 Jul 1948, six women were sworn into the regular Navy: Kay Langdon, Wilma Marchal, Edna Young, Frances Devaney, Doris Robertson, and Ruth Flora. On 15 Oct 1948, eight women were commissioned as the first female officers of the regular Navy: Joy Bright Hancock, Winifred Quick Collins, Ann King, Frances Willoughby, Ellen Ford, Doris Cranmore, Doris Defenderfer, and Betty Rae Tennant.
I WANT TO BE A NAVY WAVE
To the tune of
"I Want to be a Friend of Yours"
By Betty McClinchie
I want to be a Navy WAVE, MMM,
And a little bit more.
I want to be an Ensign, too, MMM,
And a little bit more.
I want to wear a suit of blue, MMM,
And a little bit more.
One blue stripe would be all right.
But oh, for a little bit more.
Source: United States Navy Great Lakes Naval Museum, United States Navy Naval Historical Center, Wikipedia.
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Captain Henry P. Jim Crowe, Guadalcanal, 13 January 1943
14 Oct 2007 06:25:22 PM
the seaman reading the letter on page 2 is my mother
10 Apr 2008 06:21:20 AM
This information was helpful when I was writing an essay. Thank you
24 Apr 2008 08:12:40 AM
this information is not helpful at all to me i want a quote from a first hand account by a woman in ww2 servin in the war. thanks a lot.
11 Jul 2008 06:34:42 PM
Thank you for this web site. I was looking for information on what women did during ww2 and there isn't very much said about these's lady's Keep up the good work on women in the service Thanks
8 Nov 2008 05:23:35 PM
My Aunt was on the cover of one of the magazines when she was in the Waves. Her name was Dorothy Beckley-Harvey-Smith. Not sure which last name was hers while she was in the Waves. Would love a picture of it, for my mother, her sister.
15 Dec 2008 03:09:58 PM
this really helped me wile writin a research paper on women in world war two and their gains and loses durin the whole process !!
ps thanks :))
10 Jan 2009 03:34:55 PM
Thank You so much for this website. I am using it to do train on Women in the Navy. This website has a great amount of knowledge on it and who ever is supporting this is a great asset to the world. Thank You again.
17 Feb 2009 04:57:47 PM
very cool
14 Mar 2009 10:58:13 AM
I love this website
6 Jul 2009 09:55:52 AM
Does anyone know who was the WAVE Lt. Cdr. stationed at Jacksonville NAS about 1943 or into 1944, doing psychological studies on aviators?
10 Aug 2009 06:23:09 AM
Does anyone know if any waves were stationed in England during ww2, or even came over with any officers for a short period during the war
24 Aug 2009 08:27:48 PM
As a Naval Aviator,1942-46,I remember WAVES on the towers in Corus Christi,Jax, Alemeda.Also recall attractive young women who were ferry pilots, particularly from Hellcat factory to Norfolk,East Field
25 Oct 2009 12:20:21 PM
Does anyone have information about a WAVE named Marcella Svejda. She was stationed in Japan. Fabulous that women had the chance to do all this considering what generation they were. They helped pave the way for the rest of us.
25 Oct 2009 12:22:54 PM
Is there a database to find a relative that served in with the WAVES? If so, does it tell where they were stationed and what they did?