CHAPTER XXXI
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."
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.
