The first women to serve in the U.S. Navy were nurses, beginning with the “Sacred Twenty” appointed after Congress established the Navy Nurse Corps on 13 May 1908. The first large-scale enlistment of women into the Navy met clerical shortages during World War I, and the second came months before the United States entered World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Public Law 689 creating the Navy’s women reserve program on 30 July 1942, which paved the way for officer and enlisted women to enter the Navy. On 22 February 1974, the Navy designated the first woman as an aviator. On 7 March 1994, the Navy issued the first orders for women to be assigned aboard a combatant ship, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69). Today, women serve in every rank from seaman to admiral and in every job from naval aviator to deep-sea diver.

Digital Resources

• Observance support content can be found here for use by commands and organizations.

Significant Dates and Historical Events for Women in the U.S. Navy

• Answering the Call: Civil War to World War II
• New Opportunities, New Achievements: Postwar Years to 1990s
• Leadership in the Modern Navy: 21st Century
• Twenty-five Years of Women Aboard Combatant Vessels

Women Trailblazers

• First African American Female Officers
• First Female Flag Officer: Rear Admiral Alene B. Duerk, NC, USN
• Making Dreams Come True
• Navy Women of Courage and Intelligence
• Captain Rosemary Mariner, USN

Select Ships Named in Honor of Notable Women

• Dorothea L. Dix (AP-67)
• Elizabeth C. Stanton (AP-69)
• Florence Nightingale (AP-70)
• Gabrielle Giffords (LCS-10)
• Higbee (DD-806)
• Hopper (DDG-70)
• Pocahontas (Screw Steamer)
• Pocahontas (SP-3044)
• Pocahontas (YT-266)
• Roosevelt (DDG-80)
• Susan B. Anthony (AP-72)

Collections Focused on Women in the U.S. Navy

• Art exhibit: Women in Uniform
• Photographs: Women in the Navy

Oral Histories

• Captain Ann Bernatitus, Nurse in the Pacific Theater, World War II
• Josie Mabel Brown, Navy nurse during 1918 influenza epidemic
• Lieutenant Dorothy Still Danner, Nurse, POW in the Philippines
• Lieutenant Commander Bobbie Hovis, Nurse in Vietnam

Biographies

• Captain Ann Bernatitus, Nurse Corps
• Captain Joy Bright Hancock, served in both World Wars
• Esther Voorhees Hasson, first Superintendent of the Navy Nurse Corps
• Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee, second Superintendent of the Navy Nurse Corps
• Grace Murray Hopper, pioneer in the field of computer science
• Admiral Michelle Howard, Commander, Allied Joint Force Command Naples, U.S. Naval Forces Europe, and U.S. Naval Forces Africa
• Susan Morrisey Livingstone, first woman Secretary of the Navy (acting from Jan.-Feb. 2003)

Further Reading

• Establishment of the Navy Nurse Corps, Public Law No. 115, 13 May 1908
• Navy Nurses Behind Enemy Lines in the Philippines
• I Was a Yeoman (F), experience of Mrs. Henry F. Butler, a Yeoman (F) during World War I
• History of Women in the Navy, Navy Department Press Release, 30 July 1942
• Establishment of the Women’s Reserve, Public Law No. 689, H.R. 6807, 30 July 1942 [Chapter 538]
• Great Lakes ALWAV Newsletter, April 1, 1943
• First Anniversary of WAVES, letter from President Roosevelt, July 30, 1943
• Equal Rights and Opportunities for Women in the Navy, Z-gram #116, August 7, 1972
• Navy to Begin Assigning Women to Ships, News Release, Office of Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs), October 24, 1978
• Role of Women in the Theater of Operations, from Appendix R, Conduct of the Persian Gulf War: Final Report to Congress, vol. 2. Washington: Department of Defense, 1992
• Women In the U.S. Navy: Historic Documents, History of Women on Navy ships in the Nineteenth Century; Memorandum from Alma R. Lawrence, Operational Archives Branch, for Lt. Morton, R-2511a, Main Navy. 23 Feb. 1951
• Women’s Uniforms, Changes made in Wave Uniform Regulations 
• Flying as a WASP, Women pilots set the standard in 1943 
• WAVE QUARTERS “D”, a living quarters booklet for new WAVES during WWII (Lieutenant Commander Katherine Porter Allen, W, USNR, Officer-in-Charge)
• WAVE QUARTERS “D”, a living quarters booklet for new WAVES during WWII (Lieutenant Commander W-V(S), USNR, Officer in Charge)
• Look at you in the United States Navy, 1961 Navy recruiting booklet for enlisted women
• Chart Your Future As A Woman Officer, 1961 Navy recuiting booklet for women officers
• How to serve your country in the WAVES, a WWII information booklet on joining the WAVES
• Women’s Reserve, US Naval Reserve Force, 1918
• Women’s Uniform Regulations, Yeomen (F), US Naval Reserve Force, 1918
• Women’s Winter Uniform Regulations, Yeomen (F), US Naval Reserve Force, 1919
• Uniform Regulations, Women’s Reserve, United States Naval Reserve, 1943

Blog Posts

• The First WAVES
• Navigating the WAVES in World War II
• Navy Commissions First African American Woman Officers
• Finding Greatness: The Navy’s First Woman SCUBA Diver
• Honoring the Proud Women Who Serve in the U.S. Navy
• First Female Asian Officer Speaks About Her Naval Service
• Honoring the Legacy of Navy Nurses Worldwide
• Grace Hopper: Navy to the Core, a Pirate at Heart
• Remembering the First Black Women Naval Officers 
• Navy Ships Honoring Women
• Navy Medicine’s First Female Flight Surgeon Looks Back

Additional Resources

• Heritage Month Banners
• Bibliography
• Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute

Chief Yeoman (F) USNRF – World War I

 

Military and civilian personnel of the Supplies and Accounts office in the Main Navy or Munitions Buildings, circa 1918.

 

Commodore Grace M. Hopper, USNR

 

LTjg Ann Bernatitus, (NC), USN.

 

WAVES Aviation Metalsmiths

 

Captain Rosemary Mariner, USN, the first woman to command an operational naval aviation squadron when she led VAQ-34 during Operation Desert Storm.

 

Yeoman (F) Drill Force

 

Lenah H. Sutcliffe Higbee, (NC) USN

 

Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Harriet Ida Pickens (left) and Ensign Frances Wills, the Navy’s first African-American WAVES officers.

 

African-American WAVES

 

WAVES Walking In Front of the NYC Skyline

 

Lieutenant Tammie J. Shults, one of the first women to fly Navy tactical aircraft, stands in front of an F/A-18A with Tactical Warfare Squadron VAQ 34, in 1992. (USN photo by Thomas P. Milne, 1992).