A Blog About Women Who Were Homefront Heroines: the WAVES of World War II
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.
This clipping from a WAVES newsletter shows the point system the Navy was following to release women from the WAVES. Note that women officers and selected enlisted positions such as yeomen, storekeepers and the hospital corps had a higher point total they would need to gather to qualify for separation than other enlisted women.
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.
The final step for the WAVE leaving the service? Sewing a discharge emblem on the uniform. Here, former WAVE Recruiter Helen Kiley does the job with a smile.
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.
At a separation unit in New York City, a Navy storekeeper disburses the final pay to former WAVE Recruiter Helen Kiley.
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.
What you might need – and what it will cost – in the post-war years.
From the booklet “Back to Civvies,” held by the The Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.
The Navy booklet women received upon leaving the service offers suggestions for dressing in skirts and tops, suggesting soft blouses or turtlenecks for the top half of the body, and the following for the bottom:
The skirt – a heavy woolen, gathered, dirndl-fashion, into a belt. May be tweed, plain, check, stripe.
The skirt is the smooth wool jersey with high turtle neck.
An important wide belt gives a put-together look to these newest of the “separates.”
From the booklet “Back to Civvies,” held by the The Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.
Remove the insignia and sex on plain blue buttons.
Don’t cut it, decorate it, remodel it, or otherwise change it. It was designed by a fine designer. If you are tired of it, hang it up in the closet after you have changed the buttons. Don’t look at it again until next season. Then treat it as your smart tailored suit, and do any of these things with it:
- Wear a gay hat and a bright checked or striped scarf.
- Wear a bright green or lemon yellow blouse, or a shocking pink or frilly white dickey. Add the most feminine of hats.
- With your white uniform, wear your Navy blue shirt and a blue hat. Or a black blouse and black accessories. Or wear deep, bright colors with it.
- Wear luggage tan accessories with either uniform, and remember that they are both perfect neutrals, and foils for any other color harmonies that you want to use.
From the booklet “Back to Civvies,” held by the The Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.
The Navy offered women a selection of fashionable hat choices for the post-war world, but also this reminder:
The most important personal lesson your Navy training can leave with you is the value of perfect grooming at all times. Brushed hair, neat hands, perfectly ordered clothing make any woman look right in her simplest costume. An no-one can be smart who is unpressed, untidy, not well put together.
From the booklet “Back to Civvies,” held by the The Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.
In general, your coat will have wide, rounded shoulders, deeper armholes, and if it is belted, it will be trimly pulled in. There are three chief types of coats, any of which may be fur-trimmed or plain. . .
- The boxy reefer, either short or long, but a far softer coat than its pre-war version you may have lived in.
- The short or long belted coat with a slightly fuller skirt.
- The short coat with a wide-swinging back.
From the booklet “Back to Civvies,” held by the The Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.
Rounded shoulders, fuller skirts, nipped-in waistlines and high-climbing throat-lines . . . these are the new silhouettes to look for.
Consider these highlights when shopping, but don’t be a slave to the mode if it’s wrong for you.
From the booklet “Back to Civvies,” held by the The Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.
Hinges of History 