Legislation Introduced

The May 1946 edition of the WAVES Newsletter included this tantalizing tidbit: that women might be welcomed into the peacetime Navy.

The Women’s Armed Services Integration Act would pass in 1948, granting women permanent status in the Regular and Reserve forces of the Army, Navy and Marine Corps as well as in the newly created Air Force.

This clipping comes from The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University.

May 1946

The last edition of the WAVES newsletter was published in May of 1946. The WAVE is Lottie Coltoniak of Rochester, New York, on dduty in Washington, DC.

It comes from The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University.

Finding Jobs

By April of 1946, most WAVES had been – or were being – released from military duty. One thing the Navy offered in its newsletter of that month were suggestions for how the newly-unemployed women could find work. Note the reminder: that WAVES are qualified for benefits, such as educational or loans, which all veterans would receive under the G.I. Bill of Rights.

This clipping comes from The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University.

April 1946

This is the second-to-last edition of the WAVES newsletter. The WAVE on the cover is wearing the dress blue uniform and the “overseas” regulation uniform hat.

The newsletter comes from The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University.