How the Few Became the Proud by Heather P. Venable

Author:Heather P. Venable
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
Published: 2019-03-08T16:00:00+00:00

Fig. 17. Howard Chandler Christy, “Gee!! I wish I were a man …” Library of Congress

The depictions of women provided publicity for the Corps while relying on gender differences to shame men into joining.18 Before declaring war against Germany, for example, one Marine recruiter encouraged males to enlist by dramatically claiming he had two women applicants for every male. The Corps was not alone in this approach. At one point, the Navy considered enlisting even one woman to highlight the urgent need for men.19

Dressed in uniforms similar to those of Marines, the Corps’ female volunteers implored men to do their patriotic duty. In Ohio, for example, a Marine recruiter used Mildred Rahrig, nicknamed Sergeant Pep, as his last resort to convince men to join. Similarly, an Oklahoma woman known as “Sergeantlette” Fletcher, who prided herself on the service of her two Marine brothers in France, out-recruited the civilian men.20

Even as the Corps used women in a volunteer capacity, the Navy recruited women in an official capacity beginning in 1917. The decision to enlist women in the Navy originated at the highest levels of civilian leadership. Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels discovered that the Naval Act of 1916 had created a force of reserves referred to only as “persons.” Army legislation, by contrast, specified that only “male persons” could enlist.21 By March of 1917, Daniels decided to enlist women in the Navy. More than 11,000 women, known as yeowomen, enlisted to perform clerical and other similar duties. At its peak size of about 532,931 people, women represented 2.1 percent of the Navy’s personnel.

Yeowomen caused some consternation to naval officials, who chastised them for various reasons, including wearing only selected parts of the uniform. The Navy’s delay in making all components of the uniform available to women, however, explains the purported intransigence of the yeowomen. Shocked by seeing yeowomen wearing fur coats, one naval officer accused them of being “undemocratic.” Naval officials also chastised yeowomen for their conduct within the office, citing instances of chewing gum, sitting on tabletops, and gossiping. No doubt male sailors broke similar rules, yet officials issued a separate code of regulations that dictated the expected conduct for women.22 That the Navy needed to develop a different set of rules based on gender speaks to the way female participation enhanced the idea of multiple types of military service.

For unknown reasons the Corps did not immediately follow the Navy’s lead in enlisting women. The standard argument suggests that the Corps decided to enlist women in order to compensate for the Corps’ numerous casualties in France. In reality, though, the enlistment of 305 women could not offset the institution’s casualties. In its first major battle, which lasted almost the entire month of June 1918, the Corps suffered more than 9,000 casualties.23 Despite such tremendous casualties, the Corps continued to acquire male recruits relatively easily. The month before the Corps announced it was enlisting females it exceeded its previous recruiting record, enlisting 8,584 men. By August the Corps needed thousands of men to meet and maintain its authorized strength, not a few hundred women.

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