This March we not only celebrate National Women’s History Month but also recognize the accomplishments of women in the U.S. Navy. While women have served in the Navy at various capacities for over a century, women were not assigned to duty on U.S. Navy ships until 1978, following new legislation sparked particularly by the women’s equal rights movement of the era. Needless to say, since the Intrepid was decommissioned in 1974, no woman ever served on her. However, because women did indeed have significant roles in the Navy during the time the Intrepid was in service, our collections and exhibits reflect this.

During World War II, one way that women stepped up to advance the war effort was to join the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), established by the U.S. Naval Reserve and signed into law by president Roosevelt on July 30, 1942. These uniformed women primarily filled administrative positions so that men could be relieved for duty at sea. While WAVES generally held clerical positions, thousands of them were also assigned to medical, technology, communications, and intelligence duties.


The Museum’s collections include a few WAVES uniforms, and we were recently given another uniform by William and Audrey Pickens III which has fascinating historic significance. The jacket we received was worn by Harriet Ida Pickens, one of the first black WAVES officers. Black women were not integrated into the WAVES until late 1944. As a college educated woman with a Master’s Degree in Political Science from Columbia University, Pickens was appointed Lieutenant in December 1944. She is pictured above wearing the jacket that is now part of the Museum’s permanent collections.

By the end of the war, more than 8,000 female officers and 75,000 enlisted WAVES served their country well. Only 73 of these amazing women were black. Yet, they all created “waves” by helping to pave the path for future generations of women in the U.S. Navy.

For more information on the history of women in the U.S. Navy, please check out the Naval History & Heritage Command’s web pages on this topic: http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq48-1.htm as well as  http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/prs-tpic/af-amer/afa-wave.htm.

Britta K. Arendt
Collections Manager