Category Archives: Uncategorized

Margaret Chase Smith

A mention of the WAVES wouldn’t be complete with a mention of Margaret Chase Smith. Smith was a Congresswoman during World War II (she would later become a Senator) and has been called by some “the mother of the WAVES.”

It’s a title she disavowed, but she was a strong supporter of women in military service, and was a part of the Congressional committee which expanded duties for WAVES, eventually allowing them to serve overseas. She said later:

I can only say to you that while I knew there was great reluctance and criticism, my feeling has always been that if women were to serve as men, they must accept the responsibilities as well as the privileges.  If they needed these women in spots other than those designated by the first law, then there must be very serious consideration given to the legislation for it. I think the women had a great deal to do. They had a great responsibility to uphold the dignity of women.

This photograph comes the National Archives.

The Creative Spirit

Elizabeth Reynard initially struggled in the Navy. It wasn’t that she wasn’t qualified – it was more that her creative impulses clashed often with the regimentation of military life. She was also unhappy living away from her family and friends in New York.

When the Navy decided to open a training school for women in New York in late 1942, Reynard was appointed to help develop the education program. By all accounts, her work was a huge success. She came up with the idea of bringing models of ships, sample guns and Link trainers and other equipment the women might encounter on the job for their boot camp training at Hunter College.

This newspaper clipping comes from the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies. It is about a commendation Reynard received for her service with the Navy.

W.A.V.E.S

Elizabeth Reynard is credited for being the woman who came up with the name for the WAVES. According to Virginia Gildersleeve, in her book Many a Good Crusade, the Navy wanted something that was “nautical, suitable, fool-proof, and attractive.” Reynard took up the challenge, as she wrote to Gildersleeve:

I played with those two letters [w and v] and the idea of the sea and finally came up with ‘Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service’ — W.A.V.E.S. I figure the word ‘Emergency’ will comfort the older admirals, because it implies that we’re only a temporary crisis and won’t be around for keeps.

This photograph of Reynard comes from the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies.

Elizabeth Reynard

Virginia Gildersleeve, Dean of Barnard College in New York, also asked one of her close personal friends to go to Washington and help work within the Navy develop a woman’s program. That woman was Elizabeth Reynard.

Reynard was a an English professor and graduate of Barnard College. She was a strange choice to lobby for a woman’s service because Reynard was by all accounts highly artistic and an unconventional thinker – not perhaps the best civilian woman to lobby for women’s military service. She moved to Washington in early 1942 and would eventually become one of the first women to join the WAVES.

This photograph comes from the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies.

The Advisory Council

Virginia Gildersleeve, Dean of Barnard College in New York, began working outside the Navy to lobby for women’s participation. She set up the Women’s Advisory Council, a group of fellow women who were leaders in education. They would continue their work during the war even after the WAVES were established, acting as a public relations outreach tool for the Navy.

This is a photograph of the Advisory Council c. 1944. It shows, l-r:  Miss Alice Baldwin, Dean of undergraduate college for women, Duke University; Emma Barton Brewser Gates, University of Pennsylvania Women’s Club (and wife of Penn’s President Thomas S. Gates); Miss Meta Glass, president of Sweet Briar College; Mrs. Wallace Notestein (Notestein was a professor at Yale); Miss Virginia Gildersleeve, Ethel Gladys Graham, wife of UCLA political science professor Malbone Graham, Congresswoman Margaret Chase Smith; Miss Alice Lloyd, dean of women at the University of Michigan; Mildred McAfee; and Lt. Cmdr. Philip A. Tague Jr.  It comes from the National Archives.

“Yes They Are”

Virginia Gildersleeve, Dean of the all-women’s Barnard College in New York, believed that it was a duty for women to participate in helping the war effort. After the Pearl Harbor attack, she spoke to students at Barnard College about the opportunities women might have:

Are they really going to use women for ‘trained personnel’?  Yes, they are.  They have begun to realize that the ‘man power’ of the country includes also the woman power, and that the government and industry will be forced to use women for nearly every kind of work except the front-line military and naval fighting.

This photograph comes from the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies.

Virginia Gildersleeve

As the rumblings of World War II began in Europe, women in the U.S. began laying the groundwork for women to serve in the military here. Joy Bright Hancock began doing some of that work within the Navy, in her role as a civilian for the Naval Bureau of Aeronautics.

But other women also lobbied for for women’s military service. Virginia Gildersleeve was the Dean of Barnard College in New York. She wrote at the time:

It seemed as if Hitler were about to plunge Europe into war and I, having just returned from abroad, was profoundly distressed.  I felt that we ought to do something about it.  I was intensely interested in this problem … and the enormous contribution that women might make.

This photograph comes from the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies.

The End of the Yeomanettes

The Yeoman (F) served through the end of World War I and all were released for active duty by July of 1919. Many of the women were later appointed to Civil Service positions as civilians and continued their work with the Navy.

These women served in the 12th Naval District offices in San Francisco – it comes from the Naval publication The Compass, the district newsletter. The headline attests to the quality of the work of the Yeomanettes.

This photograph comes from the Naval History and Heritage Command.

Recruitment Drives, Part II

These Yeomanettes participated in the Victory Loan drive in New York City on May 8, 1919. They are surrounding a sailor at an event sponsored by the League of Catholic Women at the Cardinal Farley Club, New York City.

The Yeoman (F) at the front has a shoulder patch with an anchor and the initials “Y” and “B”.

This photograph comes from the Naval History and Heritage Command.

Recruitment Drives

The Yeoman (F) not only worked alongside men in the Navy – the Navy found that they were also useful to help in Naval recruitment.

These women participated in the Victory Loan drive in New York City on May 8, 1919. They were instrumental in putting the drive “over the top” – i.e. earning more than the targeted goal. The structure the women are standing upon (and around) was built to look like a battleship’s superstructure. It also has two Howard Chandler Christy recruiting posters: “I Want You for the Navy” and “Gee!! I Wish I Were a Man”.

This photograph comes from the Naval History and Heritage Command.