Nimitz was not considered an advocate for bringing women into the Navy, and the head of the U.S. Nimitz, to propose legislation as it had done during World War I, authorizing women to serve in the Navy under the Yeoman (F) classification. Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics felt the Navy would eventually need women in uniform and had asked the Bureau of Naval Personnel, headed by Rear Admiral Chester W.
Opposition delayed the passage of the bill until May 1942. As auxiliaries, women would serve with the Army rather than in it, and would be denied the benefits of their male counterparts. Congress to establish a Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC). In May 1941, Representative Edith Nourse Rogers of Massachusetts introduced a bill in the U.S. Representative Edith Nourse Rogers, of Massachusetts, is pictured in 1939 with other representatives. Upon demobilization of the officer and enlisted members, Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal, Fleet Admiral Ernest King, and Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz all commended the WAVES for their contributions to the war effort. The WAVES' peak strength was 86,291 members. The Navy's lack of clear-cut policies, early on, was the source of many of the difficulties. Many women experienced workplace hostility from their male counterparts. Enlisted women served in jobs from clerical to parachute riggers. Many female officers entered fields previously held by men, such as medicine and engineering. The territory of Hawaii was the only overseas station where their staff was assigned. The WAVES served at 900 stations in the United States. After recruit training, some women attended specialized training courses on college campuses and at naval facilities. Most enlisted members received recruit training at Hunter College, in the Bronx, New York City. Specialized training for officers was conducted on several college campuses and naval facilities. The Navy's training of most WAVE officer candidates took place at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts. The WAVES were primarily white, but 72 African-American women eventually served. Volunteers at the enlisted level had to be aged 20 to 35 and possess a high school or a business diploma, or have equivalent experience.
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To be eligible for officer candidate school, women had to be aged 20 to 49 and possess a college degree or have two years of college and two years of equivalent professional or business experience. Public Law 689, allowing women to serve in the Navy, was due in large measure to the efforts of the Navy's Women's Advisory Council, Margaret Chung, and Eleanor Roosevelt, the First Lady of the United States. The notion of women serving in the Navy was not widely supported in the Congress or by the Navy, even though some of the lawmakers and naval personnel did support the need for uniformed women during World War II.
She was commissioned a lieutenant commander on August 3, 1942, and later promoted to commander and then to captain. McAfee, on leave as president of Wellesley College, became the first director of the WAVES. The purpose of the law was to release officers and men for sea duty and replace them with women in shore establishments.
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Navy to accept women into the Naval Reserve as commissioned officers and at the enlisted level, effective for the duration of the war plus six months. Congress and signed into law by President Franklin D. The United States Naval Reserve (Women's Reserve), better known as the WAVES (for Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), was the women's branch of the United States Naval Reserve during World War II. The photo was taken in 1942 or 1943, when she was ranked lieutenant commander. McAfee was the first director of the WAVES (1942–1945).