WAACs were paid less than men and did not hold the same ranks or receive the benefits. Some of this disparity would be rectified when “auxiliary” was dropped in 1943 and the WAACs became WACs, but women were by no means equal. The WAACs, coming first, bore the brunt of negative publicity, enduring gibes about their chastity and criticism of their morals and motivation for joining. Even so, they fell over themselves to enlist. 10,000 WOMEN IN U.S. RUSH TO JOIN NEW ARMY CORPS, wrote the New York Times on May 28, 1942, noting that at a single recruiting office in New York, fourteen hundred women
...more