At the San Diego Society for Military History Conference in 2023, the panelists of “Women in the Twentieth-Century US Army: Ambition, Frustration, Sacrifice” noted that women proved to be both a problem and a solution for military efficiency in the 20th Century. By allowing service regardless of gender, the U.S. military increased its skilled labor pool to support its growing tooth-to-tail ratio but challenged its own long-standing masculine identity. In their haste to utilize female labor efficiently, senior military leaders did not grapple with the discontinuities between their expectations and realities when it came to servicewomen resulting in perpetual and illogical lags. For example, women were originally recruited specifically for their skilled labor, but often placed under the command of military officers who did not understand the necessary skills of their tasks. They were recruited to free up men for combat roles yet required male guards when posted overseas. Women’s dress was highly policed, but often insufficiently supplied and designed. Often efficient planning resulted in inefficient execution when it came to servicewomen with no individual clearly at fault. This dichotomous relationship continues to plague logistical planning, gender acceptance, and public perception of servicewomen to this day.
The Legacy of (IN)Efficiency proposes to trace the roots of gendered inefficiency in women’s military service throughout the 20th century. By following the changing roles, expectations, perceptions, and successes of women’s service in World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, and the all-volunteer military, this edited volume will provide a basis for understanding how the U.S. military came to clarify its own definition of womanhood, service, and identity that the modern services have inherited.
Cyclical Themes
- Recruiting
- Training
- Uniforms
- Legitimacy
- Veteran experience
- Sexual harassment/violence
- Governing women’s bodies/sexuality
- Race
- Public opinion
- Housing/logistics
People
Selena Carroll
Grace Ann Parker
Grace Anne Parker is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate studying inefficiencies in women’s military integration from 1948 to 1953, with a particular emphasis on the Korean War. Her research also encompasses the experiences women had with various veterans organizations in the decades after the Korean War. Grace Anne is fluent in French and has an intermediate level of Mandarin. She holds a master’s degree from North Carolina State University in public history and hopes to get a job tying her love of military and public history together after she finishes her PhD.
Twitter @theGAPstorey
Dylan Wheeler
Kaitlyn Ross
Kaitlyn Ross is a PhD student in the History Department at Texas A&M University. Her research focus is 20th century U.S. and U.K. military history, with a specialization in the formation of women’s service branches, interwar planning, and women veterans’ experiences. Her dissertation, “Urgently Needed”: The Transnational Movement to Introduce Women into the American and British Militaries from WWI to WWII, examines the international interactions between women civic leaders, national defense policymakers, and military professionals over the enlistment of women in auxiliary military services from 1914-1948. In support of this research she served as the inaugural Margaret S. Vining and Barton C. Hacker Fellow in Women’s Military History at the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of American History in 2023.
Twitter @WACy_Historian
Levison Mcdougall
Molly Sampson
Molly Sampson is a dedicated World War II historian and museum leader currently pursuing her MA in World War II Studies at Arizona State University. Her research emphasizes the confluence of gender, social, and military history through a focus on the Women’s Army Corps in World War II. Currently serving as the Executive Director of the Sandusky Area Maritime Association, Sampson oversees the operations of the Maritime Museum of Sandusky.
Instagram @LipstickAndWar
Facebook @LipstickAndWar
Lipstick & War 