27/05/2024
Today is a great day to highlight one of my favorite books in our collection. The “WAVES Anniversary Volume Eats and Sweets” is a cookbook commemorating the 25th Anniversary of a pioneering group of military women.
When the U.S. officially entered the war in December 1941, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, pressed for a women’s branch of the armed forces and General Dwight D. Eisenhower, commander of U.S. forces in Europe, agreed that womens’ service would be essential for victory. As such, nothing the Army and Air Force established women’s units called the WACs (Women’s Auxiliary Corps) and WASPs (Women’s Air Force Service Pilots) who went on to do distinguished work for the war and establishing women in many military positions for the first time in history.
In 1942, the Navy established the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) program, with more than 100,000 women joining. WAVES were not permitted to function outside of the US borders, but fulfilled about 20% of the stateside administrative roles.
More than 30% of the WAVES worked as naval aviation training pilots, air traffic controllers, and parachute testers (a job I’m not sure I’d be willing to occupy myself). They also excelled as weather specialists, chemists, and lawyers. World War II marked the Navy’s first female doctor, lawyer, bacteriologist, and computer specialist. One notable WAVE, Grace Murray Hopper, was a pioneer in early computer development and programming language design. Truly, without her work, you wouldn’t be reading this page today.
In 1948, President Truman signed the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act, which recognized WACs and WAVES as full members of the armed forces and gave them access to the same benefits as male servicemen.
But the WAVES role in military history had much more far-reaching implications - when the American public saw women excelling in these military roles that were previously thought to be reserved for the realm of men, it expanded the cultural view of what women were truly capable of and provided a springboard for furthering more progressive opportunities for women from that point on.
This cookbook reads like a deserved celebration.
