Women In the US Army - Research Paper Example

Opposing the traditional socio-religious barriers to and prejudices that women are best suited for indoor activities due to their psychophysical fragility, women’s position in outdoor activities was reinforced by their participation in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corp. Indeed the root of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corp lies in the women’s unarmed services “with the Army under contract and as volunteers during World War I as communications specialists and dietitians” (Bellafiare 4). Subsequently, a bill regarding women’s inclusion into the US Army as regular personnel with equal pay, equal legal protection, disability benefits, pensions and medical care was proposed by Edith Nourse Rogers, the Congresswoman of Massachusetts.

But Rogers’ propositions did not go unchallenged since “both the Army and the American public initially had difficulty accepting the concept of women in uniform” (Moore 34). Finally, Rogers’ committee and the US Military authority came to a compromise regarding the women’s legal rights in the army and the Womens Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) became existent in 1942 by Public Law 554 () as a branch "for the purpose of making available to the national defense the knowledge, skill, and special training of the women of the nation.

" (Bellafaire 7). Later, the WAAC gained the full status of an army branch, being converted to Women’s Army Corp (WAC) in 1943. About 150,000 American women “served in the Womens Army Corps (WAC) during World War 11. Members of the WAC were the first women other than nurses to serve within the ranks of the United States Army” (Bellafiare 5). Though Rogers’s idea was to provide the women with full status of army personnel in the US Army, due to the novelty of the idea and social barriers and prejudice towards women’s participation in armed activities, the WAAC members did not have the full rights that their male counterpart had