WAC ads - What's the message?

Updated:  2/17/2023

​Are you looking for time capsules back into the 20th century?  

Advertising is a perennial repository of culture brimming with hints of "the way it was."

Some of my favorite ads recruit women to the Women's Army Corps (WAC).   I started collecting WAC advertisements while writing my novel, Women's Company - The Minerva Girls, about WACs in the 1960s and 1970s.

I invite you to take a look at two ads that I added recently to my collection.  Both ads appeared in popular women's magazines. 

• "Woman of the Army -- USA."  September 1944.  Harper's Bazaar. ​
• "How to tell your parents you want to join the Army."  September 1972.  Seventeen.  

WAC Recruiting Ad, Harper's Bazaar, September 1944

World War II.  Persuasion via a Call to Patriotism and Performance.

The minimum age for a woman to enlist in the WAC (1942-1978) varied over time.

• During World War II, the minimum age was 21 for the WAAC (Women's Army Auxiliary Corps) and then lowered to age 20 when the WAC was established in 1943.  ​
• No matter what the age of the WAC recruit, advertisements appealed to the woman's patriotism and capability.   
• The "Good Soldiers" ad in a 1944 issue of Harper's Bazaar exemplifies that message.

Patriotism.

• The clear-eyed WAC in the ad looks toward the sky.  She's young, attractive, and meticulously groomed in her uniform.  She has left the comfort of her civilian life to volunteer for something bigger than herself.  She's a soldier you can count on to do her bit to help win the war.

Performance.  

• Good soldiers.  The WAC emphasized the phrase "Good soldiers" in many of their World War II ads because, frankly, many Americans weren't ready to think of women as soldiers, much less believe women could be good soldiers.  

 

• Alert, important, competent. The WAC had built a successful track record to back their claim long before this ad appeared in Harper's Bazaar in September 1944.  But facts didn't matter to many Americans.  Naysayers unwilling to change their minds not only stuck by their guns, but also shouted,  "Not my sweetheart!  Sister, daughter..."  

​

• Gallant.  As the ad says, she's "Gallant -- a Wac wouldn't say so.  But it's Heaven's own truth."​

WAC Recruiting Ad - Seventeen - September 1972

Calling new high school graduates...

How to tell your parents?

Telling your parents you want to join the Women's Army Corps could create a dicey situation for a potential recruit just out of high school.  

• "Not my daughter!"  Parental skepticism about the WAC often ran high because, even in the 1970s (and beyond), many Americans held negative stereotypes of women in the military.

 
So you needed to be able to tell Mom and Dad about all the advantages listed in this 1972 advertisement published in Seventeen ​magazine. 

• Paid job training with free medical and dental care, meals, and housing.
• Responsible, rewarding work with the same free benefits.   
• Paid vacation.  Paid sick leave.  
• New friends.  Travel. 
• And, given your interest and course availability, the opportunity to continue your education via college courses in your free time that would be partially paid for by the Army.  

Then there was your age.

• In 1948, with the enactment of the Women's Armed Services Integration Act on June 12, the minimum age for women enlistees decreased to age 18.  But women between the ages of 18 and 21 were required to obtain parent (or guardian) consent to enlist.  

​

• In 1974, Congress enacted legislation to permit women to enlist at age 18 without their parents' consent and at age 17 with their parents' consent. 
  • See The Women's Army Corps by Betty J. Morden, pages 277 and 325.

Did the WAC meet its recruiting goals?  Not always.  

• Not during the U.S. involvement in World War II (1941-1945). 
  • Recruiting started off with a bang.
  • But competition raged between civilian and military organizations for womanpower as the country united to fight a two-front war.  
  • By early 1944, WAC recruiters had identified the greatest obstacle to recruiting volunteers:  the general public’s often low regard of women in the armed forces.

 

• Not during the Korean War (1950-1953)
  • ​​Recruiting started off successfully, explained Morden, then declined due to the unpopularity of the war, competition with other women's military services for recruits, and public apathy.

 

• How about the post-Korean War period?
  • In 1961, new recruits increased due to several factors:
    • ​A WAC Center historian attributed the increase to the "tense situation in Berlin [leading to the Berlin Crisis of 1961], a rise in unemployment, socio-economic patterns in the United States and a surge of patriotism following the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy in January 1961." (Morden, p.176)
  • Keep in mind that the strength of the WAC did not exceed 12,000 women between June 1947 and June 1969. (Morden, Appendix A, Personnel Statistics, Table 1.) 
  • It wasn't until 1967 that the U.S. Congress removed the two percent ceiling on the number of Regular Army WACs in the U.S. Army--a ceiling that the WAC never reached. 
  • So....a small group of dedicated WACs kept the Corps going through the post-war 1950s and 60s, a period when the range of non-combat jobs open to women kept shrinking.

 

• ​And in the 1970s?
  • ​​Yes.  Over time, the end of the draft in 1973 spurred changes in law, regulations, and policies  that made Army life more attractive to women.  For example in the 1970s, as noted by Morden, p.325...
    • All military occupational specialties were opened to women except those involving direct combat.
    • Women entered the Army's ROTC program.
    • WACs were authorized to command men except in combat units.
    • Servicewomen received dependency entitlements.
    • Mandatory discharge on pregnancy and parenthood was eliminated.
    • Army aviation and airborne training were opened to women....

​In short, as equality for women within the Army increased, so did enlistments.

Would you like to see more WWII WAC recruiting ads?  

• Visit my April 30, 2019 blog post, "What Can WAC Ads Tell You about American Culture in WWII?"
• Visit my April 18, 2018 blog post, "Women in the U.S. Army:  When Did It Become Legal for Women to be Soldiers?"  

How about WAC recruiting ads from the period 1965-1973?  

• Visit my website page titled, "WAC Recruiting Ads."  

Until next time, good reading!  Most importantly, take care during these troublesome times of COVID-19.  Americans have overcome many calamities in the past and can do so again--together.