The Life and Role of Wacs During WWII

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In a 1944 magazine article, Eleanor Roosevelt claimed that American “women are serving actively in many ways in this war [World War II], and they are doing a grand job on both the fighting front and the home front.”1 While many women did indeed join the workforce in the 1940s, the extent and effects of their involvement were as contested during that time as they are today. Eleanor Roosevelt was correct, however, in her evaluation of the women who served on the fighting front. Although small in number due to inadequate recruitment, the women who left behind their homes and loved ones in order to enlist in the newly established Women’s Auxiliary Army Corp (WAAC), and later the Women’s Army Corps (WAC), were deemed invaluable to the war effort.
When the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps was established in May of 1942,2 women were not conscripted like their husbands, fathers, and brothers;3 their service was wholly voluntary, and as such the WAC had difficulty acquiring its projected quota. A variety of theories had been proposed in an effort to explain this shortage of volunteers. For example, some presumed that since America, unlike Europe, was not being bombed, the women here did not feel a similar sense of urgency to join the Army. This excuse, however, was considered unacceptable because Canada, a country which also remained unscathed, seemed to have no problem with female recruitment. By the year 1944, more than 37,000 of the 12,000,000 Canadian women had joined the armed forces, as opposed to the 175,000 of the 135,000,000 American women.4 Others suggested that many women felt obliged to stay home in order to support their parents or friends whose sons or husbands had already gone to war.5 One Saturday Evening Post writer even bla...

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... The Saturday Evening Post. 29 April
1944.
“Here’s How WAC Helps Army Do Its Job in War: Women Now Serve at 270 Posts in U.S.”
Chicago Daily Tribune.
“How to Get More Girls to Become WACs.” Chicago Daily Tribune. 8 October 1943.
“Keeping Posted.” The Saturday Evening Post.
Korman, Seymour. “WACs Display Kitchen Magic In Africa, Too.” Chicago Daily Tribune. 17
July 1943.
Nangle, Eleanor. “WACs Help Win Air Raid.” Chicago Daily Tribune. 19 March, 1944.
Noderer, E.R. “WACs Will Be In Second Front Says Col. Hobby: ‘Just Like Any Part of the
Army.’” Chicago Daily Tribune. 11 January 1944.
O Hauser, Earnest. “Those Wonderful G.I. Janes.” The Saturday Evening Post. 9 September,
1944.
“WACs Want Work Calling On New Skills.” Chicago Daily Tribune. 7 March 1946.
Winn, Marcia. “WACs do 239 Jobs in Army; Could Do 406.” Chicago Daily Tribune. 25
January, 1944.

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