Women Soldiers in the U.S. Army: When did it become legal?

Not until July 1, 1943, when President Franklin Roosevelt signed a compromise bill passed by the U.S. Congress to establish the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) giving women full military status. 

​1943.  How come it took so long?
 
After all, hadn’t women

• practiced home defense on the frontier since Colonial days, provided civilian laundry, cooking, sewing, and nursing services to the U.S. Army since the American Revolution, and enlisted legally with full military rank & status in the Navy & the Marines during World War I?

 
Moreover, didn’t Congress establish

• the Army Nurse Corps in 1901, and the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) in May 1942? 

 
​And what about

• the “Hello Girls” of World War I -- 223 telephone operators who were bilingual in English and French and who--at the request of General John J. "Black Jack" Pershing--were sent to France;
• the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) -- 1,102 civilian women pilots during World War II who thought they, like the women of the WAAC, would eventually be granted full military status in the Army;
• and the--

WAC Recruiting Ad - Life magazine, September 11, 1944

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