But even once planners grasped the difficulty of fighting a two-ocean war using only men, the idea of putting women in uniform remained controversial. “Who will then do the cooking, the washing, the mending, the humble homey tasks to which every woman has devoted herself; who will nurture the children?” thundered one congressman. People worried that military service would imperil women’s femininity and render them unmarriageable. Many believed servicewomen would be, in effect, fully embedded “camp followers,” a euphemism for prostitutes and hangers-on who followed soldiers from post to post.
