Women Medal Recipients
Women In WWI
WWI
Thirty Thousand Women Were There
In 1901 and 1908 the establishment of the Army and Navy Nurse Corps opened the door
for women in the military but ever so slightly. It wasn't until the United States got
involved in World War One that some parts of the government got serious about using
woman power.
As the Army stumbled around bureaucratic red tape trying to figure out how to enlist
women the Navy simply ignored the War Department dissenters and quickly recruited
women. Nearly 13,000 women enlisted in the Navy and the Marine Corps on the same
status as men and wore a uniform blouse with insignia. The Navy's policy was extended to
the Coast Guard, but personnel records from World War I contain scarcely any references
to the Coast Guard Yeomanettes. A handful of them apparently were employed at the
diminutive Coast Guard headquarters building in Washington. Nineteen-year-old twin
sisters Genevieve and Lucille Baker transferred from the Naval Coastal Defense Reserve to
become the first uniformed women in the Coast Guard. With the war's end the Coast
Guard Yeomanettes, along with their Navy and Marine Corps counterparts, were mustered
out of the service.
These were the first women in the U.S to be admitted to some military rank and status.
Thirty Thousand Women Were There
In 1901 and 1908 the establishment of the Army and Navy Nurse Corps opened the door
for women in the military but ever so slightly. It wasn't until the United States got
involved in World War One that some parts of the government got serious about using
woman power.
As the Army stumbled around bureaucratic red tape trying to figure out how to enlist
women the Navy simply ignored the War Department dissenters and quickly recruited
women. Nearly 13,000 women enlisted in the Navy and the Marine Corps on the same
status as men and wore a uniform blouse with insignia. The Navy's policy was extended to
the Coast Guard, but personnel records from World War I contain scarcely any references
to the Coast Guard Yeomanettes. A handful of them apparently were employed at the
diminutive Coast Guard headquarters building in Washington. Nineteen-year-old twin
sisters Genevieve and Lucille Baker transferred from the Naval Coastal Defense Reserve to
become the first uniformed women in the Coast Guard. With the war's end the Coast
Guard Yeomanettes, along with their Navy and Marine Corps counterparts, were mustered
out of the service.
These were the first women in the U.S to be admitted to some military rank and status.
WWI Yeomanettes At Mare Island Naval Shipyard California
Sign reads "While the boys were away we worked for Victory"
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