Women Step Up to Serve

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Hermann J. Trojanowski, Interim University Archivist (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/

Abstract: Discusses the role of women in World War II. During World War II, over 350,000 women from across the United Stated served in the military. More than 7,000 of these women came from North Carolina. As far back as the Revolutionary War, women had served with the military as nurses, cooks, and laundresses. However, these women were considered civilians and not military. It was not until World War I, when some women served in the U.S. Navy as “Yeomanettes,” who performed mostly clerical duties, that women were considered part of the military. In 1942 officials established the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), giving women auxiliary status. Females did get military status when the army disbanded the WAAC and established the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) in July 1943. Other military branches quickly followed the army’s lead, producing the WAVES, SPARS, and WASPs. Many North Carolina women who served during World War II have shared their experiences through oral history interviews conducted for the Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project based in the University Archives & Manuscripts department at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Additional Information

Publication
Used with permission from Tar Heel Junior Historian 47, no. 2 (Spring 2008): 15–17, copyright North Carolina Museum of History
Language: English
Date: 2008
Keywords
World War Two, women, women soldiers, women in the military, oral history, North Carolina

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