WOMEN IN THE NAVY
MORE THAN ELEVEN THOUSAND REGULARLY ENLISTED--THEY CONSTITUTE THE
ONLY WOMEN ENTITLED TO MEMBERSHIP IN THE AMERICAN LEGION--NO LACK
OF WOMAN'S NURSING--GIRLS WORKED IN TORPEDO FACTORY AND MUNITION
PLANTS--THE INSPIRING LEADERSHIP OF MRS. ANNA HOWARD SHAW, HEAD OF
WOMAN'S COUNCIL OF NATIONAL DEFENSE.
The Navy was long regarded as an institution for men only. It was the
only place where there was no opening for women. To be sure no sailor
would have felt comfortable going to sea in a ship which had not been
sponsored by a woman's breaking the bottle as it slid into the waters
at the launching. A ship, feminine in all our language, demanded a
woman's benediction as the assurance of favoring winds and prosperous
voyages. But men alone wore the naval uniform prior to 1917.
It is true that before that time it had been found that the naval
establishment could not get along without women, and they had been
admitted to hospitals and dispensaries ashore, where they were found
indispensable.
In March, 1917, after the break with Germany, the Navy stood in
great need of clerical assistants in Washington and at all the shore
stations. There was no appropriation to pay civilians for the work
that was immediately necessary. Every bureau and naval establishment
appealed for clerks and stenographers. How could they be secured at
once? The Civil Service Commission could not furnish a tithe of the
number required, even if there had been the money to pay them.
"Is there any law that says a yeoman must be a man?" I asked my legal
advisers. The answer was that there was not, but that only men had
heretofore been enlisted. The law did not say "male."
[Illustration: YEOMEN (F) IN LIBERTY LOAN PARADE, NEW YORK CITY
The Yeomen (F) were regular yeomen, and they did yeomen service. Inset:
Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, chairman of the Woman's Council, Council of
National Defense, under whose direction the women of the United States
were mobilized for war work.]
[Illustration: U. S. S. CYCLOPS, THE COLLIER WHICH DISAPPEARED WITHOUT
LEAVING A TRACE]
"Then enroll women in the Naval Reserve as yeomen," I said, "and we
will have the best clerical assistance the country can provide."
It was done, and they were given the designation Yeomen (F)--not
"Yeomanettes," but regular yeomen, the F indicating female. They were
truly yeomen and did yeoman service. In the Marine Corps they were
equally efficient, and were known as "Marinettes" or Lady Marines.
"I do not wish to enroll as a Naval Reservist," said an independent
young woman to the enrolling officer at the Washington Navy Yard,
"until I know what ship I am to serve on."
It was explained to her that women yeomen were not to go to sea.
"But I want to go on the _Nevada_," she said, in tones of
disappointment.
These women yeomen, enlisting as reservists, served as translators,
stenographers, clerks, typists, on recruiting duty, and with hospital
units in France. Too much could not be said of their efficiency,
loyalty and patriotism.
Eleven thousand Yeomen (F), 1,713 nurses, and 269 Marinettes were
enrolled. They were, I am informed, the only women serving during the
war who were on the same footing as men with all allowances and pay
and clothing outfits, and the only women eligible to membership in the
American Legion. Those who made up the four companies in Washington
became proficient in military drill. They made a handsome appearance
when, upon the return of the Rainbow Division, they were the guard
of honor to the President, having previously taken part, with other
military units, in the welcome to President Wilson when he returned
from Paris. They made a notable showing as they formed in double lines
of spotless white uniforms as the presidential party passed through the
Union Station at Washington to receive the enthusiastic welcome given
by the multitudes.
The uniforms of the Yeomen (F) and the Marines (F) were natty and
beautiful, were worn with pride, and are preserved by them as the
honorable token of service during the great war. They were both
becoming and suited to the duty assigned. As a designer of woman's
uniforms the Navy Department scored a distinct success, for these
uniforms were copied by women all over the country.
The last drill of these Yeomen (F) was held on July 31, 1919, upon
their demobilization. They had saved the day in war, and the Navy
regretted the legislation which compelled the disbanding. I do not
know how the great increase of work could have been carried on without
them. I voiced the thanks of the Navy in expressing "gratitude and
appreciation of their splendid service and patriotic coöperation," as
they were mustered out. They are organized in posts in the American
Legion, and have carried into civil life the spirit of devotion to
country which they displayed in the days of the war.
I issued an order early in the war that women be given preference in
appointments to clerical positions in the Navy. This released men for
military duty. The war taught that the Navy was dependent upon woman's
deftness not only to prevent "lack of woman's nursing," but also in
multifarious duties, including assembling parts for torpedoes and other
war munitions. Upon a visit to the Newport Torpedo Station, I found
women in overalls at work, putting together parts of torpedoes made
there. They were so capable and showed such skill that scores were
enabled to do, and to do excellently, a character of work formerly
done exclusively by men. Not a few of them were school teachers, who,
feeling the compulsion for war-work, shared the feeling of the wealthy
woman in Washington, who, applying for a position in the gun factory at
Washington, said:
"I can knit at night. If I cannot fight, I wish something to do where I
can feel I am really in the war, helping to make guns or torpedoes or
other real instruments of war--a job that is hard, and where labor in
the heat and burden of the day taxes all my strength."
She was a sister in spirit of the many women who worked in munition
plants, fashioning rifles, dressed in overalls, faces begrimed, proud
that they were thus helping on with the war. If there had been need,
many more would have gone into the shops, glad to tax their strength
for the cause in which their very souls were enlisted.
Not only does the world owe a lasting debt of gratitude to women
who served, in shops, in the Navy Department, in factories making
naval aircraft, at navy bases, in work for the Army, but likewise the
larger number, who in their homes and communities and in welfare work
at home and abroad, dedicated their hands and spirit to the varied
war activities. Their most notable organized duties were in the Red
Cross and the Young Women's Christian Association. A story of the
benefactions of the Red Cross is chiefly the story of woman's work and
woman's ministrations. With the mothers of our fighting forces, they
constituted in truth the irresistible first line of defense and offense
which would have held to the last against all odds. They furnished the
basis of what, for lack of a better name, we called morale--the will to
win--without which ships and guns and fighting machinery never yet won
a battle. A Woman's Advisory Committee on Naval Auxiliaries to the Red
Cross War Council rendered patriotic and useful service.
The Government early found the necessity for the organization and
direction of women in war work, and the Council of National Defense
set up a Woman's Council, headed by that great woman of statesmanship
and vision, the late Dr. Anna Howard Shaw. The women who composed this
Council, in addition to Dr. Shaw, were Mrs. Philip N. Moore, Mrs.
Josiah E. Cowles, Miss Maude Wetmore, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, Mrs.
Antoinette Funk, Mrs. Stanley McCormick, Mrs. Joseph R. Lamar, Miss
Ida M. Tarbell, Miss Agnes Nestor, Mrs. Ira Couch Wood, secretary.
Under the direction of this Woman's Council the women of America were
mobilized for war work in all parts of America. Women were found,
wholly enlisted, with their counsel and labors and sacrifice, wherever
men planned or fought or died. Some gave their lives, many gave their
health, all gave complete consecration.