Women’s Armed Services Integration Act
12 JUNE 1948
WOMEN’S ARMED SERVICES INTEGRATION ACT
The roles open to women in our WWII Navy were limited. The Navy Nurse Corps had been accepting women exclusively since 1908, and women had also entered service through the Navy and Marine Corps Women’s Reserve under expedient provisions during WWI and again in WWII. The 1942 version, Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, or “WAVES,” recruited thousands of female enlisted and officers into non-combatant jobs that would “free a man for the front.” Perhaps the two divisions to most effectively utilize women during WWII were the Bureau of Aeronautics, where WAVES ferried newly built aircraft and trained combat aviators, and the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery.
In July 1945 Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal recognized an immediate problem. The coming end of hostilities would mean an unavoidable downsizing, however the end of fighting would not end the need for qualified support staff. It was conservatively projected that peacetime demands in administration, aeronautics, communication, supply, and healthcare would require the retention of 1082 WAVES officers and 9075 enlisted. The need to continue the care of the wounded alone demanded large numbers of medical technicians. As such, on 1 August 1945 Forrestal asked all female corpsmen slated to demobilize to consider voluntarily extending their service beyond 1 September 1946. This was followed by subsequent requests for females to extend even further. It was quickly becoming obvious how critical our female reservists had become.
Driven also by the growing needs of the Cold War, the Navy led a campaign to incorporate women permanently into the peacetime military. In February 1946, CDR Joy Bright Hancock, USNR, was transferred to the Bureau of Personnel expressly to draft legislation and lobby Congress for retention of females. Her efforts were hampered initially by the exodus of many of the core influential WAVES officers to lucrative civilian careers. That year’s legislative attempt failed when the 79th Congress adjourned without action on her bill.
Undaunted, her next effort in 1947 was supported with testimony from such notables as FADM Chester Nimitz and GEN Dwight Eisenhower and resulted in Public Law 625, the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act of 1948, signed this day. This legislation admitted women to the regular Navy, Army, Air Force, and Marines for the first time. The act unavoidably reflected prevailing social norms in that women were barred from combat service, and female staffing was limited to 2% of total manning. Then in 1974, the Navy’s first six female aviators were pinned, and further integration on 24 January 2013 allowed women into ground combat below the regiment level.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 17 JUN 26
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Ebbert, Jean and Marie-Beth Hall. Crossed Currents: Navy Women from WWI to Tailhook. New York, NY: Brassey’s (US), 1993, pp. 97-114.
Holm, Jeanne. Women in the Military: An Unfinished Revolution. Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1992, pp. 113-29.
Panetta, Leon E., and Shelly Stoneman. “It’s Been 10 Years Since Women Were Allowed to Serve in Combat.” The Hill, 28 January 2023. AT: https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/3834021-its-been-10-years-since-women-were-allowed-to-serve-in-combat-theres-a-lot-left-to-accomplish/, retrieved 8 May 2026.
Sweetman, Jack. American Naval History: An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 2nd ed. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1991, p. 218.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: Opposition to the Act included the argument that medical discharge rates would be higher for females due to the symptoms of menopause. It was the Surgeon General of the Navy who rested this claim by stating, “It is well known that men pass through the same physiological change with symptomatology closely resembling that of women.”
The Act integrated females but hardly did so equally. Female servicemembers were only allowed to claim their husbands as dependents if they could prove he was not a breadwinner, a clause not in male enlistment contracts. Also not in male contracts was an escape clause allowing each service secretary the authority to terminate the service of any female “under circumstances and in accordance with regulations prescribed by the President.” Total equality is yet to be achieved. As of 2026, women are still not required to be registered with the Selective Service, and women are held to less rigorous physical fitness standards.
One of the more notable women affected by this legislation was Dr. Grace Murray Hopper. After serving as a WAVES officer in intelligence and assisting in the development of the Mark 1 computer system, she was “rifted” in March 1946 because of her age. Later, under the above Act, she was re-commissioned into a stellar career and eventual flag rank.
Despite integration, female sailors continued for years to be warmly referred to as “WAVES” or, in the Medical Department, “CorpsWAVES.”