Date

3-22-2024

Department

College of Arts and Sciences

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in History (PhD)

Chair

Stephen T. Neese

Keywords

Vietnam War, military, women in the military, WAC, feminism, women's rights

Disciplines

History

Abstract

Women’s military service has often been relegated to the footnotes of history in the larger discussion of war and military service. Despite this, women have served the United States through every major conflict since the Revolutionary War with no expectation of recognition or reward. Such service raises questions regarding patriotism, gender roles, and citizenship. This research explores those questions during the Vietnam War era, one of the most defining moments in American society and culture and argues that women’s military service was shaped during those turbulent years through persistent quiet integration, defining political intervention, and military necessity. An investigation of available sources revealed a considerable gap of literature on first-hand experiences of women in the Vietnam War despite evidence of a Women’s Army Corps detachment sent to Vietnam. Recorded oral histories, official histories of the corps, archival sources, and volumes published by the women veterans helped to explore the evolution of women’s service after the massive reduction in military women following World War II and how women capitalized on the opportunity of service during the socio-political upheaval of the counterculture generation. Social movements such as the anti-war, Civil Rights, and women’s movements affected women in the military both positively and negatively, indicating this era expanded women’s roles in the military offering new avenues for career longevity, independence, and status among male peers while highlighting such areas as prohibitive public policy, chauvinism, and sexual harassment as growing problems military women continue to face.

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