Edith Nourse Rogers - WAAC

WAAC

Women had served in the United States military before. In 1901, a female Nurse Corps was established in the Army Medical Department and in 1907 a Navy Nurse Corps was established. However, despite their uniforms the nurses were civilian employees with few benefits. They slowly gained additional privileges, including "relative ranks" and insignia in 1920, a retirement pension in 1926, and a disability pension if injured in the line of duty in 1926. Rogers voted to support the pensions.

The first American women enlisted into the regular armed forces were 13,000 women admitted into active duty in the Navy and Marines during World War I, and a much smaller number admitted into the Coast Guard. These "Yeomanettes" and "women Marines" primarily served in clerical positions. They received the same benefits and responsibilities as men, including identical pay, and were treated as veterans after the war. These women were quickly demobilized when hostilities ceased, and aside from the Nurse Corps the soldiery became once again exclusively male. In contrast, the army clerks and "Hello Girls" who worked the telephones during World War I were civilian contractors with no benefits.

Rogers' volunteer work in World War I exposed her to the status of the women with the United States Army, and the much more egalitarian role of women in the British Army. With this inspiration and model, Edith Rogers introduced a bill to the 76th Congress in early 1941 to establish a Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) during World War II. The bill was intended to free men for combat duty by creating a cadre of 25,000 noncombatant clerical workers. The bill languished in the face of strong opposition to women in the army, and indifference in the face of higher priorities like the lend-lease bill, price controls, and ramping up war production.

After the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, manpower shortages threatened as productivity increased. Rogers approached the Army Chief of Staff George Marshall, and with his strong support she reintroduced the bill to the 77th Congress with a new upper limit of 150,000 women, and an amendment giving the women full military status. The amendment was resoundingly rejected but the unamended bill passed, and on May 14, 1942 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's signature turned "An Act to Establish the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps" into Public Law 77-554.

While "Auxiliaries", and thus not a part of the regular army, the WAACs were given food, clothing, housing, medical care, training, and pay. They did not receive death benefits, medical care as veterans, retirement or disability pensions, or overseas pay. They were given auxiliary ranks which granted no command authority over men, and also earned less than men with comparable regular army ranks, until November 1, 1942 when legislation equalized their remuneration. Since they were not regular army they were not governed by army regulations, and if captured, were not protected by international conventions regarding the treatment of prisoners of war (POWs).

On July 30, 1942 Public Law 77-554 created the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) in the Navy. The law passed with no significant opposition, despite granting the WAVES full status as military reserves, under the same Naval regulations that applied to men. The WAVES were granted equal pay and benefits, but no retirement or disability pensions and were restricted to noncombat duties in the continental United States. The similarly-empowered SPARS (from the motto Semper Paratus/"Always Ready") in the Coast Guard, and the Marine Corps Women's Reserve soon followed. The September 27, 1944 Public Law 78-441 allowed WAVES to also serve in Alaska and Hawaii.

The initial goal of 25,000 WAACs by June 30, 1943 was passed in November 1942. The goal was reset at 150,000, the maximum allowed by law, but competition from sister units like the WAVES and the private war industry, the retention of high educational and moral standards, underuse of skilled WAACs, and a spate of vicious gossip and bad publicity in 1943 prevented the goal from ever being reached.

The rumors of immoral conduct were widely published by the press without verification, and harmed morale. Investigations by the War Department and Edith Rogers uncovered nothing; and the incidence of disorderly and criminal conduct among the WAACs was a tiny fraction of that among the male military population, venereal disease was almost non-existent, and the pregnancy rate was far below civilian women. Despite this, the June 30, 1943 enlistment reached 60,000.