than two percent of the total force, capped the number of women officers at ten percent of the
two percent, limited the promotion of women, and denied spousal benefits to husbands. Military
policies also prohibited women from having command authority over men.
Between World War II and the inception of the all-volunteer force, the only time the
military attempted to increase the number of women in the services and aimed recruiting efforts
specifically at them was during the Korean War. In order to reduce draft calls for men, the
Pentagon decided in October of 1951 than in the next ten months, they would try to add 72,000
women to the armed forces, increasing their numbers from 40,000 to 112,000. The Women’s
Army Corps was to grow from 12,000 to 32,000. President Truman kicked off the recruiting
drive in November of 1951. The campaign attempted to appeal to women’s patriotism using
slogans like “Share Service for Freedom” and “America’s Finest Women Stand Beside Her
Finest Men” (ibid.:151-152). The drive was a failure and came nowhere near meeting its goals.
Public opinion was turning against the war, and the services’ pay and living standard were not
competitive in a tight labor market. In addition, as Jeanne Holm suggests, “the public’s attitude
toward women serving in the armed forces had not mellowed since World War II. If anything,
the frantic recruiting campaigns of 1951-52 had reawakened the old accusations of immorality
and masculinity as attributes of women who joined the services” (ibid.:153-154).
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the number of women in the military never came close
to reaching the two percent limit mandated by Congress. The services were highly concerned
with the quality of female recruits, holding them to higher educational, mental, and physical
standards than the male recruits (ibid.:179). The range of jobs which women could hold were
seriously limited; by 1965, 70 percent of enlisted women performed clerical and administrative
work, and an additional 23 percent worked in a medical capacity (ibid.;183-184). Members of
the Women’s Army Corps no longer underwent the bivouac training that taught soldiers how to
live in the field, and they were not allowed to fire small arms or take weapons familiarization
training. They did, however, learn how to apply makeup during their military indoctrination.
Uniforms and hair style regulations aimed for a neat, feminine appearance (ibid.; 181-182). All
branches of the military were highly concerned with the image of their women service members
and the retention of their femininity.
4
Some of the concern over femininity came from the female directors of each of the women’s services, all of whom
remembered the accusations of masculinity pointed at women who served during World War II and worried about
the reputations of the women serving. They felt that women in the military would be better accepted if they met
higher standards than the men, didn’t venture too far into non-traditional occupations, and retained a feminine
appearance. During the Vietnam War, when the Tet Offensive began, everyone, including the women serving, was
ordered into fatigues. The WAC director, back in Washington DC, struggled with commanders in Vietnam to get
6
Convention