The Pittsburgh Press (October 23, 1943)
Poll: Women favor own drafting for war jobs
Majority think they should be taken for non-combat tasks
By George Gallup, Director, American Institute of Public Opinion
The old saying, “it’s hard to guess what’s on a woman’s mind,” would seem to apply especially to Congressmen in Washington.
Many Congressmen and others have shied away from proposals to draft women for the WACs, WAVES and other organizations because of the fear that women would resist such a step.
Yet when the women were interviewed, it was found that they are overwhelmingly in favor of drafting members of their own sex for non-fighting jobs before drafting married men with families.
This was disclosed in a nationwide study just completed by the Institute in which men and women in every state were asked the following question:
The Army can either draft 300,000 single women ages 21-35 for the WACs for non-fighting jobs, or it can draft the same number of married men with families for the same work. Which plan do you favor?
The vote throughout the country is:
| Think single women should be drafted | 73% |
| Think married men with families should be drafted | 19% |
| No opinion | 8% |
Even more interesting is the vote of the single women themselves. Here is a table showing the vote of single women, as compared to that of married men, on the issue:
| Single women | Married men | |
|---|---|---|
| Think single women should be drafted | 72% | 70% |
| Think married men with families should be drafted | 23% | 21% |
| No opinion | 5% | 9% |
The vote of all women, including that of many mothers with daughters who would be affected under such a draft, shows an even more favorable sentiment toward taking single women in the place of fathers:
| Think single women should be drafted | 77% |
| Think married men with families should be drafted | 16% |
| No opinion | 7% |
The Army would like to have as many as 500,000 WACs. To date, the volunteers have totaled less than 100,000.