Women in the Corps E80 The Sword and the Sock Bun: The Rise of Women Marines
When we left off in our last episode, Colonel Joseph W. Knighton posed two critical questions to Commandant General Alexander Vandegrift.
This episode picks up from that turning point. We’ll cover how the Marine Corps integrated women in the post–World War II years, how leadership resisted and adapted, and how women Marines steadily expanded their roles from clerks and administrators to instructors, technicians, and overseas support personnel. From the establishment of women’s recruit training at Parris Island to early integration milestones during the Korean War, this chapter marks the beginning of something new.
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27 out of the 43 Military Military Occupational Specialties (MOS) Women were Authorized to Serve (Highlighted Cells)
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References:
Brewer, L. (1818). The Female Marine, Or, The Adventures of Miss Lucy Brewer. author.
Dessez, E. C. (2021). The first enlisted women, 1917–1918 (1St Edition). Dorrance.
Marine Corps Pay Tables in Register of the Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the U.S. Navy, U.S. Naval Reserve Force and Marine Corps (Washington, D.C., 1919).
National Archives Record Group 80 -- Records of the Secretary of the Navy, General Correspondence, 28555-510-- Letter dated 2 August 1918. Copies on file Reference Section, History and Museums Division, Subject file: WW I Women Marines, hereafter Women Marines World War I File.
National Archives Record Group 127--Records of the U.S. Marine Corps, General Correspondence (1913-1938) 1535-1555, Circular, dated 14 August 1918 (Women Marines World War I File)
National Archives Record Group No. 127, . cit., memo from MajGen Barnett, dated 8 February 1919.
National Archives Record Group 127, E cit. Letter from MajGen George l3arnett, dated 30 June 1919.
U. S. Department of the Navy, Bureau of Naval Personnel, Women's Reserve, "WAVES History," Unpublished manuscript, (Washington, D. C., 1946) , p.1.
U.S. Marine Corps Muster Rolls for 1-31 August 1918.
U.S. Marine Corps Muster Rolls for January 1919.
Usmcr, L. C. H. L. (2018). Women Marines in World War I. St. John’s Press.
U.S. Women's Bureau, The New Position of Women in American Industr, Bulletin #12 (Washington, D. C., 1920), p.25.