Primary Sources: American Women: Military

"The Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project documents the contributions of women in the military and related service organizations since World War I. The project includes a wide range of source material including photographs, letters, diaries, scrapbooks, oral histories, military patches and insignia, uniforms, and posters, as well as published works."

"The four major wars in which American women served after World War II can be split into two pairs. Korea and Vietnam were conflicts fought in Asian countries divided by the politics of the Cold War. The Persian Gulf War and the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq were fought in the Middle East and grew out of tensions over aggression in that region and, in the latter instance, the 9/11 attacks. For women, the first two wars signaled few advances in their roles in military service, but in the two recent wars, the areas of women’s participation expanded immensely, with potentially more dire consequences"

"Serving in the military is an experience unique to each veteran. Our mission at the Veterans History Project (VHP) is to collect, preserve, and make accessible these stories of service for future generations. Whether these narratives take the form of oral history interviews or original manuscript and photograph materials, they are a treasure trove of individual feelings, personal recollections, and primary source materials representing the voices of those who took an oath to serve our nation."

"The Military Women’s Memorial Oral History Collection portal houses the digitized oral histories of women who have served in and with the U.S. Armed Forces, from World War I to the present. Their stories document women’s participation in the nation’s defense intertwined with the evolution of women’s place in American society. The Military Women’s Memorial is the only national repository that honors, preserves, and tells the stories of all women’s military service."

Rutgers University alumni and/or New Jersey residents who served on the home front and overseas during World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Cold War

"Coined as the ‘Hello Girls’ as early as the late 19th century, female switchboard operators were widely known as having gentle and polite voices regardless of demanding and impatient callers. During WWI, General Pershing enlisted French-speaking ‘Hello Girls’ to improve wartime communication, relaying messages about troop movements and supplies. The ‘Hello Girls’ not only proved to be an integral part in telecommunications at home, but they also played a vital role in military operations. Read more about it!"

"The museum's expert staff of curators, archivists, historians and educators is an excellent source for information about the service of Army women from 1775 to present."

Primary sources related to women and minorities in the U.S. military from the Library of Congress.

Access first hand accounts from U.S. war vetrans. It currently covers the following: WWI (1914-1920), WWII (1939-1946), Korean War (1950-1955), Vietnam War (1961-1975), Persian Gulf War (1990-1995), Afghanistan and Iraq Conflicts (2001-). Accounts are also provided by U.S. civilians who participated in the war effort (USO workers, war industry workers, etc.)

Purpose: To establish a Women's Army Auxiliary Corps for service with the Army of the United States.

Purpose: To establish a Women's Army Corps for service in the Army of the United States.

"The Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service—better known in history as the WAVES—were the crucial women’s Naval Reserve component of the U.S. fleet during its most epochal years—World War II. The WAVES were in many ways unprecedented, and the obstacles they faced, both minor and significant, were numerous. From 1969 to 1971, Naval Institute oral historian John T. Mason Jr. and his West Coast operative, Etta Belle Kitchen, sought to recapture some of this unique aspect of the story of the Navy in the Second World War, and in the process preserved some vital insights into what amounted to a precursor to the gender-integrated force of today. "

"In an interview, Gov Pete Wilson (R-CA) discusses whether he will run for President in 2000. He favors legality of abortion and flatter taxes and opposes women in combat and homosexuals in the military. "

Purpose: To establish the Women's Army Corps in the Regular Army, to authorize the enlistment and appointment of women in the Regular Air Force, Regular Navy and Marine Corps, and in the Reserve components of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps, and for other purposes.

"Between 1942 and 1944, at the height of World War II, more than a thousand women left homes and jobs for the opportunity of a lifetime--to become the first in history to fly for the U.S. military. These women became the Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II, better known as the WASP."

"Our actively growing collections include a library of nearly 1,000 books by and about military women, photograph and document archives, personal and military-issue artifacts, memoirs and oral histories. These considerable resources allow us to serve as a leading educational resource on women in US military history."

"The issue of protective legislation for women and mothers has divided reformers, labor unionists, legislators, courts, the military, and feminists since the end of the 19th century when a number of states passed statutes to limit women’s work hours. At issue—equal treatment versus biological difference. During the Cold War era, this question informed the debate on the role of women in the military. Although the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act of 1948 established a permanent presence for women in all branches of the armed forces, a new Army regulation in October 1949 required the discharge of female servicewomen with children under the age of 18. To guarantee passage of the Armed Forces Reserve Act of 1952, during the Korean War, a provision was dropped that would have reversed this regulation. Thus mothers of dependent children were ineligible to enlist in reserve units and were discharged after childbirth or adoption. In the following Congressional session, the Senate passed S. 1492, allowing the reinstatement of women with dependent children. The bill, however, died in the House Committee on Armed Services and failed to become law. The following testimony of Women’s Army Corps Director Colonel Irene O. Galloway, to the Senate subcommittee on S. 1492, presented the Department of Defense position opposing the bill. Galloway argued that in the event of an emergency mobilization, such women could not and should not be counted on to leave their duties as mothers to join activated units. In the 1970s, Congress finally passed a law that allowed women with dependent children to enlist."

"In World War II soldiers, sailors, nurses, and airmen often found themselves thrown together with fellow Americans whose experiences and backgrounds were drastically different from their own. Racial segregation was an official policy of the War Department, but gender discrimination was a subtler, if no less troublesome, social constraint. Doris Brander, who enlisted shortly after Pearl Harbor in the navy’s Womens Auxiliary Voluntary Expeditionary Service (WAVES), felt that she and her fellow WAVES were rebels, going against the tide of convention and pushing the limits on women’s opportunity. In this 1992 interview with Rosetta Kamlowsky, Brander described how she and other women fought the sexism they experienced in the military and strove for gender equality. "

"The issue of protective legislation for women and mothers has divided reformers, labor unionists, legislators, courts, the military, and feminists since the end of the 19th century when a number of states passed statutes to limit women’s work hours. At issue—equal treatment versus biological difference. During the Cold War era, this question informed the debate on the role of women in the military. Although the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act of 1948 established a permanent presence for women in all branches of the armed forces, a new Army regulation in October 1949 required the discharge of female servicewomen with children under the age of 18. To guarantee passage of the Armed Forces Reserve Act of 1952, during the Korean War, a provision was dropped that would have reversed this regulation. Thus mothers of dependent children were ineligible to enlist in reserve units and were discharged after childbirth or adoption. In the following Congressional session, the Senate passed S. 1492, allowing the reinstatement of women with dependent children. The bill, however, died in the House Committee on Armed Services and failed to become law. In the following testimony to the Senate subcommittee on S. 1492, Mrs. Anna Gordon, a Reserve officer in the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service—U.S. Navy Women’s Reserve), emphasized that many mothers successfully combined motherhood and careers. She further argued that skilled, experienced women dedicated to military careers were too valuable for the nation to discard at a time of Cold War uncertainty. In the 1970s, Congress finally passed a law that allowed women with dependent children to enlist." History Matters - GMU

" In the following testimony to the Senate subcommittee on S. 1492, Alba C. Thompson, a former servicewoman, pointed out that the present policy discriminated unjustly against women with children and entailed a squandering of valuable resources. Furthermore, she argued, the army had no right “to dictate the terms of motherhood.” " GMU History Matters