Release a Man for Combat: The Women's Army Corps During World War II

ISBN-13: 9783412206604 / Angielski / Twarda / 2010 / 379 str.

M. Michaela Hampf

Opis

The Women's Army Corps (WAC) in which almost 150,000 women served over the course of the war was the first women's unit in the Regular Army. In order to release male soldiers to fight the women worked at first in jobs that were traditionally marked female but were soon also trained as mechanics and pilots and served in male-dominated jobs in the United States, Africa, Europe and Southeast Asia. In her study M. Michaela Hampf traces the experience of these women/soldiers, examines military and civilian discourses on women in the military, and explores how the Army dealt with soldierly femininity and female sexuality. Drawing upon government documents, records of courts-martials as well as letters, poems, and songs, she shows how hard the concept of the women/soldier was fought over in the 1940s a battle that continues to this day.

Spis treści

1. INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Military Institutions and Gender 6
The Gendered Division of Labor in Military Institutions 6 - Armed Civic
Virtue 10 - Citizenship, Arms & Gender 11 - Beautiful Souls and
Martial Citizens 15 - Women s Roles in Modern Wars 20 - Total War
and the Mobilization of Women 27
1.2. Theoretical Concepts. 34
Power and Agency 34 - Power Knowledge 36 - Strategic Apparatus 38
Gender 39
1.3 Methodological Approaches 44
1.4 Literature 47
Historical Perspectives on the Military 48 - Studies on Gender and the
Military 54 - Research on the WAAC and the WAC 60
1.5 Structure . 62
2. ORGANIZATIONAL HISTORY OF THE WAAC/WAC . 64
2.1 The WAAC and WAC Bills in Congress. 64
2.2 Training. 70
Basic Military Training 71 - Specialist Training 72
2.3 Policies and Regulations. 73
2.4 Women Soldiers at Work. 78
2.5 Overseas Service 81
2.6 Demobilization and Integration 85
2.7 Combat: Drawing the Line 91
3. CONSTRUCTING THE WOMEN SOLDIER THROUGH
RECRUITING CAMPAIGNS, MEDIA COVERAGE AND
PUBLIC RELATIONS 98
3.1 Petticoat Army or Doughgirl Generalissimo 101
3.2 Release a Man to Fight . 104
Competition by Other Government Agencies 106 - Quality or Quantity: The
Enlistment Standards 108 - The toughest sales problem in the country 109
3.3 Self-Sacrifice v. Self-Interest : WAAC Recruiting. 113
The Motifs of Motherhood, the Family, and Home 114 - I joined to serve my
country.and I m having the time of my life! 118
3.4 The Slander Campaign . 120
3.5 Guilt v. Glamour : WAC Recruiting . 134
The All-States-Campaign 138 - The Attitude of Army Men 141 - Fighting
men and capable Wacs 146 - Comforting Our Wounded Heroes 147
3.6 Public Relations . 152
3.7 Petticoat Soldiers : Ego-documents from the Field 161
Camp Newspapers 161 Songs 166
4. DRESS CODES: THE WAAC UNIFORM 174
4.1 Military Uniforms 174
4.2 Symbolic Aspects: Planning and Design of the Uniform. 177
The Pre-Planning Process 177 - A neat and military appearance 180
- Prêt-a-porter the Army Way 183
4.3. Material Aspects . 184
Clothing for Women s work Put to the Practical Test 184 - Procurement
and Supply 185 - The Overseas Experience 189
4.4 Publicity Crisis . 191
4.5 Technologies of the Self 194
5. SUBJECTED TO THE COLORED RACE . 199
5.1 African American Wacs: Fighting on Two Fronts 199
African Americans and the War Effort: Some Socio-Economic Aspects 199 -
The Mobilization of African American Men 201 - Political Pressure for
the Integration of African American Women 203 - Recruiting of African
American Women 204 - Segregation in the WAC 207 - African American
Wacs Overseas 215 - Assignment and Mal-Assignment 217 - Protest:
Sit-Down Strike or Disobedience? 219
5.2 Japanese American Wacs . 223
5.3 Puerto Rican Wacs 232
5.4 First Class Citizenship ? 233
6. SEXUALITY. 237
6.1 Normalizing Practices 237
The Regulation of Respectability: Double Standards for Men and Women 246 -
Social Control: VD Policies for Wacs, Civilian Women and Servicemen 247 -
Respectability and the Legitimacy of the Corps: The Code of Conduct and
WAC Regulations 250 - Regulating the Unrespectable: Pregnancy, Abortion,
Maternity and Marriage 251 - Patrolling Respectable Femininity: Anti-
Fraternization Policies 252
6.2 Homosexuality in the Armed Forces . 257
The True Pervert, the Criminal Sodomist and the Intoxicated or
Curious 257
6.3 Exclusionary Practices 262
WAC Regulations and Procedures: In Search of undesirable traits and
habits 262 - The hierarchy of perversity : Class, Race, Practice,
Haircut 266 - Homosociality and Lesbian Agency: The Fort Oglethorpe
Investigation 269
7. CONCLUSION: THE WAC BETWEEN INSTITUTIONAL
INTEGRATION AND DISCURSIVE EXCLUSION 280
Acknowledgements . 300
Abbreviations . 302
Sources and Literature 304
A Note on Sources 304 - Archival Sources 308 - Published Sources 309 -
Secondary Works 321

O autorze

M. Michaela Hampf ist Juniorprofessorin für die Geschichte Nordamerikas am John-F.-Kennedy-Institut der Freien Universität Berlin.