In the past year, the U.S. Navy has celebrated numerous milestones regarding women serving in the armed forces. The surface warfare community proudly lays claim to many of those milestones. The following is a brief history on women in the surface Navy, honoring the legacy of the wome who were the first to infiltrate a once all-male profession.
March 2017 marked the 100-year anniversary of women in leadership positions within the surface Navy. In March 1917, the Navy became the first branch in the U.S. military to allow women to enlist and serve in a non-nursing capacity. These women were put into yeoman billets where their duties included clerical work, radio operation, translation, producing ammunition, drafting, and design work. Among those women was Loretta Perfectus Walsh. Loretta Walsh was trailblazer for women in the early stages of gender integration in the U.S. military. She became the first female chief petty officer to serve in the Navy when she was sworn in 21 March 1917. Since this historical moment, she has served as an example, along with her fellow female yeomen, to the women in succeeding generations who also aspire to break boundaries in new fields.
Despite significant pushback from members of Congress and those already serving in the armed forces, by the end of the war there were 11,275 yeomanettes in the Navy and 300 Marinettes in the Marine Corps. As the war drew to a close, and the need for a large military waned, the need for yeomanettes declined as well. By 1919, all the female yeoman were relieved from active duty.
That was not the end of women serving in the Navy. It wasn’t until World War II that once again women could serve in the U.S. Navy and were assigned to billets around the world. The Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service program (WAVES) was instituted in 1942, during World War II. The need for an increase in the number of available military personnel was at the forefront of the minds U.S. Navy leadership. In contrast to the yeomanettes and Marinettes that served in World War I, the women in the WAVES program performed jobs outside of secretarial and clerical positions. While women still filled administrative positions, WAVES personnel were also placed in billets such as control tower operators, intelligence personnel, photographers, and aviation mechanics. When the WAVES program was initially formulated, many believed that female service would terminate as the war came to an end, as it did after World War I. However, those thoughts were put to rest once the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act was passed in June 1948. The act allowed women to obtain and maintain permanent status in all branches of the U.S. military. Less than a month after this act was passed, six women were sworn into the Navy and by October of the same year, eight women were commissioned as the first female officers in the Navy.
November 2018 will mark the 40-year anniversary of the integration of women into the Fleet through the “Women in Ships” program. This program was implemented in November 1978 and allowed 54 female officers and 367 enlisted women to be placed on a number of support ships including transport ships, hospital ships, submarine and destroyer tenders, and oceanographic research vessels. As time went on, women proved to be “combat worthy” and in March 1994, 63 women were assigned to the USS Eisenhower (CVN-69). Those women, both officer and enlisted, are remembered for taking the lead in gender integration in the surface Navy. Women served as surface warfare officers and in multiple enlisted ratings as well.
Spring 2016 marked the 40-year anniversary of women being accepted into the U.S. Naval Academy. The class of 1980 was the first graduating class from the Naval Academy to be fully gender integrated. During the fall semester of academic year 2017, many gathered in the Naval Academy’s Alumni Hall to attend a conference celebrating 40 Years of Women at the Academy. Female and male alumni from graduating classes dating back to 1980 gathered to share the experiences of those brave women from the first few Naval Academy classes that saw women walk across the stage to accept a commission into the U.S. Navy or Marine Corps. For those who attended the conference, they heard from women who went through unimaginable tribulations in their years at the Academy and in the Fleet. The audience heard from women that consciously chose to attend an institution where many would openly oppose their presence and who consciously chose to surpass those naysayers’ expectations and prove themselves worthy to those who doubted their capabilities simply because of their gender. Admiral Michelle Howard, Rear Admiral Deborah Loewer, Captain Barbara Scholley (Ret.), and Commander Darlene Iskra (Ret.) are just a few examples of women from both the early Naval Academy classes and other commissioning sources with amazing accomplishments in their surface Navy careers.
Currently, women comprise 19 percent of the entire naval force, 18 percent of officers, and eight percent of senior and master chiefs. Women are still the minority, however that does mean one cannot strive for the best. Each day an increasing number of women serve in leadership positions throughout the Fleet. The USS Decatur (DDG-73), the ship on which I spent my First Class summer cruise, is one example. At the time, Commander Mary Katey Hays (U.S. Naval Academy Class of 1999) served as the ship’s Executive Officer, second in command of the warship. She worked her way through the ranks, demonstrating her leadership and ship handling capabilities and has recently taken over as the Commanding Officer of the warship. She leads knowledgeable and competent officers and sailors of both genders, including Lieutenant Laura Baumgartner and Lieutenant Anna Douglas.
As a female First Class Midshipman, I have found these women to be great role models who have reinforced my desire to become a U.S. Naval officer in the surface warfare community. The USS Barry (DDG-52) out of Yokosuka, Japan will be my first duty station. In late January of 2017, I made a significant life decision and choose this ship as my first command. Picking any new duty station or assignment can be a daunting task and one has to consider the responsibilities of the billet they are going into, what type of life they can expect to live, and how the events occurring each day will affect their job. I chose a forward deployed destroyer for my first command because of the ship’s mission capabilities and the implied promise of experiencing a high operational tempo coupled with turbulence and uncertainty in the Seventh or Fifth Fleet. I am confident that there is a place for women in combat and that we are capable of performing exceptionally well in such circumstances. One example is Commander Andria Slough who is the Commanding Officer of the USS Porter (DDG-78), one of the two Navy warships that recently launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles into Syria following the chemical weapons attack in early April. Many women have walked the path that I am beginning and I know that I can look to them and their careers as examples as I start my own Navy. To the young women reading this who aim to do more and who aspire to be a leader in any profession or community, you can use them as well.
SOURCES
- http://americanhomefront.wunc.org/post/women-leaders-no-longer-rarity-todays-navy
- http://navylive.dodlive.mil/2017/03/21/100-years-of-deckplate-leadership-by-female-navy-chiefs/
- http://americacomesalive.com/2011/03/03/loretta-walsh-1896-1925/
- https://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/rr/s01/cw/students/leeann/historyandcollections/history/lrnmrewwi.html
- http://www.womenofwwii.com/navywaves.html
- http://ww2db.com/other.php?other_id=24
