Formation of WAAC
On May 15, 1942, the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) was established.
Prior to and at the start of World War II, women were generally only allowed on the battlefield as nurses or as volunteers as communications specialists or dieticians. Though they served with the Army, they didn’t have any official status, so they had to pay for their own food and lodging and didn’t receive any disability benefits or pensions when they returned home.
Congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers knew all about this situation and was determined to get women the same protection and benefits as men if they were to be called on again. In early 1941 she met with General George C. Marshall, the Army’s Chief of Staff, and told him of her plans to introduce a bill to create a women’s corps that was separate from the Nurse Corps.
Over time, the idea of a women’s corps gained support. However, while Rogers wanted to create an organization that was part of the army with equal pay, pension, and disability benefits, the Army was uneasy about accepting women right into its ranks. The resulting bill was a compromise. It would provide food, uniforms, living quarters, pay, and medical care for up to 150,000 women. However, the women would receive less pay than men of the same rank and didn’t receive overseas pay, government life insurance, veteran’s medical coverage, or protection if they were captured by enemy troops. Rogers had to give up some of her goals in order to get the bill onto the floor.
Rogers first introduced the bill in May 1941, but it didn’t receive much attention. It wasn’t until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that the bill was more seriously considered. General Marshall spoke out actively in favor of the bill. America was entering a two-front war and needed all the help it could get. The bill faced serious opposition, especially from southern congressmen, who asked “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?”
After significant debate, the House and Senate passed Rogers’ bill, which President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law on May 15, 1942. He initially set the recruitment goal at 25,000. That was met by November, after which time it was increased to 150,000.
The same day the bill was approved, Oveta Culp Hobby was made director of the WAAC. Hobby had worked as a newspaper editor and worked on the Texas legislature before speaking out in favor of the WAAC. Her first priority was recruiting women to serve as clerical workers, teachers, stenographers, and telephone operators. Every woman she recruited would “free a man for combat.” As Hobby explained, “The gaps our women will fill are in those noncombatant jobs where women’s hands and women’s hearts fit naturally. WAACs will do the same type of work which women do in civilian life. They will bear the same relation to men of the Army that they bear to the men of the civilian organizations in which they work.”
The first batch of officer recruits were an average age of 25 years old, most of who attended college and worked in an office or as a teacher. One in five enlisted because a male family member was serving and they wanted to help him get home faster.
After extensive training, the first WAAC units were put to work with Aircraft Warning Service units. By October, there were 27 WAAC companies at these stations up and down the eastern seaboard. Soon other WAACs were assigned to the Army Air Forces, Army Ground Forces, or Army Services Forces. As time went on, the WAACs duties expanded significantly. By the last year of the war, only about half of the WACs were performing traditional jobs. Other tasks included weather observers, cryptographers, repairs, parachute riggers, photograph analysts, control tower operations, electricians, and radio operators, among many other things.
As American military planners began looking toward another front in Europe, they realized a need for more manpower. Out of this need, talks began of creating the Women’s Army Corps (WAC), which would be a part of the Army, and not just serving with it. The WAC would also offer women equal pay, privileges and protection. The WAC was created in July 1943. By war’s end, over 18,000 WAAC and WAC women served over seas.
The success of the WAAC and WAC led to similar auxiliaries – the WAVES, SPARS, and the U.S. Marine Corps Women’s Reserve. The WAC was dissolved in 1978 when the female units were integrated with the men’s.
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A good and interesting historical article.
My grandmother was a WAC. She served in a post office position in Kanas.
After posting my comment I noticed yours. Here is a list of many of the women of the WAC that I thought you might be interested in.
https://www.usofficerdocuments.com/armyair/wac.html
It was so nice to read this article as my Aunt Marjorie was a recruiting officer and one of the first women to join the WAC. Here is an interesting excerpt from a Raeford NC news journal about her and the early years of the WAC.
“In a recent interview, Lieutenant Marjorie T. Conover, WAC recruiting officer in charge of Hoke County, said that WAC recruits are carefully classified and the majority given training for which they show special interests and possibilities. “Formerly, the new WAC would have been largely limited to clerical, communications, cooking and motor transport assignments,” she said. ‘Today WACs serve in 155 different Army jobs, according to a booklet just published by WAC Washington Head quarters, listing these jobs.” Naming some of the jobs listed. Lt. Conover said: “A WAC may like the sound or a job as draftsman, weather observer or pay roll clerk. Maybe de coding enemy messages, translating foreign broadcasts would be just her meat! If she is untrained, she will be sent to a special school to fit her for the job that will help Uncle Sam now and held her in later life. “If she already qualified from civilian experience there’s no waste of time. The WAC is assigned directly to duty following basic training,” she added. The Army asks for more women than the WAC can supply immediately, the officer stressed.. With 155 jobs open to women, the corps seeks 500,-”
https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn93064776/1943-11-18/ed-1/seq-1/ocr/
When I first entered Air Foce Officers training School (OTS) in 1966 there were about 25-30 women also entered. At my first base (a large one) there was one WAF that year; when I retired in 1994 women had really filled the ranks in every way. Many many women were performing almost every duty imaginable.
Thank you for your service. Go Air Force!!!
The bill faced serious opposition, especially from southern congressmen, who asked “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?â€
Let me introduce to you, RoboMom
This was very interesting. I wish they would reprint some of those stamps as a rememberance
of that time when women did serve. It would be nice to put their stamps on mail again.
Suggest this to our post office. thank you for all the storied about this article.
My mother was an army seargent in WWll and I remember seeing a picture of her in uniform at my grandmother’s house. We didn’t talk about it around the house as it seems my father wasn’t happy with the arrangement. It later occurred to us that she outranked him. In the 50’s and 60’s we had to endure the ragging of “Your mother wears combat boots”. Fact is we were always proud of her.
Throughout history, man has proven himself so insecure that he kept women subdued and subserviant. The stereotypical wife catering to her husband comes to mind. It’s even in the marriage vows though I think most choose a more modern vow based on equality rather than servitude these days. After the war most of the positions held by women were again done by the returning GI’s but women had smelled the coffee and were going to get what they deserved. Unfortunately, there is still a bias towards male workers in pay and benefits although it’s slowly but surely being fixed. A little too slow if you ask me. The role they played in WWII cannot be understated and they are true heroes and deserve the recognition.