The Pittsburgh Press (March 22, 1944)
Ferguson: Future of WAVES and WACs
By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
Washington is inundated by WAVES. WACs are also numerous. Military women are as much a part of the local scene now as the Capitol dome.
I wonder how many of these feminine soldiers and sailors will desire to stay in the military profession after the war. Will all of them be as eager to get out of uniform as many were to get in? Will the experiences of military life change their perspectives and objectives? What would men say if the WACs and WAVES asked to become a permanent part of the military?
One Army officer who had argued eloquently that women wanting equality with men must share with them the duties of war, said he hadn’t given these questions a thought. He said:
However, it’s possible that women may wish to share military jobs in the post-war era, since they seem to be doing such a swell job at them now.
If we move into another economic decline, it is not unlikely that women who have earned their stripes during wartime will decide to remain in the same positions afterward. Many may prefer to stick rather than get out and buck the civilian world again.
Congress and the War Department, of course, have the power to usher them out of service. But what kind of treatment would that be? If it is the duty of women to join the Armed Forces in order to help save the nation, it may also be the duty of men to allow them to share its military peacetime projects and pay.
And what about a feminine West Point and Annapolis for training women soldiers for the next war?