- Wars, Conflicts, and Operations
- Commemoration Toolkits
- Heritage
- Uniforms
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1776-1783
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1797
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1802
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1812-1815
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1815
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1830-1841
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1841
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1852
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1852-1855
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1862-1863
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1864
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1898
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1900
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1905-1913
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1917-1918
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1918-1919
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1922-1931
- Uniforms of the U.S Navy 1941
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1942-1943
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1943-1944
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1951-1952
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1961
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1967
- Customs and Traditions
- Sailors' Tattoos
- Goats and the U.S. Navy
- Navy Athletics
- The Sailor’s Creed
- The Ship’s Bell
- Striking the Flag
- Unofficial Navy Certificates
- Precedence of Forces in Parades
- Passing Honors, National Anniversaries, and Solemnities
- Rocks and Shoals: Articles for the Government of the U.S. Navy
- Plank Owners
- Ship Naming
- Twenty-One Gun Salute
- Change of Command
- Navy Music
- Commissioning Pennant
- Ship Launching and Commissioning
- Burial at Sea
- Crossing the Line
- Banners
- Life Aboard
- Decorations and Awards
- Speak Like a Sailor
- Famous Navy Quotations
- Origins of the Navy
- U.S. Navy History Lessons Learned
- The Navy and Marine Corps Team
- "Ex Scientia Tridens": The U.S. Naval Academy
- Uniforms
- Communities
- Disasters and Phenomena
- Tragedy of USS Memphis
- The Navy’s Humanitarian Mission
- The Catastrophic Fire On Board USS Forrestal
- U-2s, UFOs, and Operation Blue Book
- The Sinking of Maine
- Port Chicago Naval Magazine Explosion
- The Sullivan Brothers and the Assignment of Family Members
- Weather Related Incidents
- The Loss of Flight 19
- Organization and Administration
- Leadership
- Ranks
- Regulations and Policy
- Personnel
- Service and Medical Records
- U.S. Navy Installations
- Washington Navy Yard, District of Columbia
- Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia
- Naval Submarine Base New London, Connecticut
- Naval Station Mayport, Florida
- Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida
- Naval Station Great Lakes, Illinois
- Naval Base San Diego, California
- Naval Base Kitsap, Washington
- Naval Station Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
- U.S. Fleet Activities Yokosuka, Japan
- Naval Support Activity Bahrain
- Naval Support Activity Naples, Italy
- Diversity
- Exploration and Innovation
- Electricity and USS Trenton
- The World Cruise of the Great White Fleet
- The Voyage of a Lifetime
- The Ships of the Great White Fleet
- Great White Fleet Gallery
- Beginning of the Cruise
- Fleet Leadership
- Crossing the Equator
- World Cruise Experience
- At Sea
- Puerto Rico-South America-Mexico
- U.S. West Coast
- Hawaii-Australia-New Zealand
- Japan and China
- Philippines and Ceylon (Sri Lanka)
- Suez Canal-Egypt-Turkey
- Mediterranean
- End of the Cruise
- Memorabilia
- Navy Role in Space Exploration
- Polar Exploration
- The First U.S. Naval Observatory
- Bathyscaphe Trieste
- Airships & Dirigibles
- Higgins Boats
- Navy’s Use of Torpedoes
- The Nuclear Navy
- Radar and Sonar
- Navy’s Use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
- Naval Mine Warfare
- Notable People
- Presidents
- Chiefs of Naval Operations
- The Office
- Admiral William S. Benson
- Admiral Robert E. Coontz
- Admiral Edward W. Eberle
- Admiral Charles F. Hughes
- Admiral William V. Pratt
- Admiral William H. Standley
- Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy
- Admiral Harold R. Stark
- Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King
- Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz
- Admiral Louis E. Denfeld
- Admiral Forrest P. Sherman
- Admiral William M. Fechteler
- Admiral Robert B. Carney
- Admiral Arleigh A. Burke
- Admiral George W. Anderson Jr.
- Admiral David L. McDonald
- Admiral Thomas H. Moorer
- Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr.
- Admiral James L. Holloway III
- Admiral Thomas B. Hayward
- Admiral James D. Watkins
- Admiral Carlisle A. H. Trost
- Admiral Frank B. Kelso II
- Admiral Jeremy M. Boorda
- Admiral Jay L. Johnson
- Admiral Vernon E. Clark
- Admiral Michael G. Mullen
- Admiral Gary Roughead
- Admiral Jonathan W. Greenert
- Admiral John M. Richardson
- Admiral Michael Gilday
- Master Chief Petty Officers of the Navy
- MCPON Delbert D. Black
- MCPON John D. Whittet
- MCPON Robert J. Walker
- MCPON Thomas S. Crow
- MCPON Billy C. Sanders
- MCPON William H. Plackett
- MCPON Duane R. Bushey
- MCPON John Hagan
- MCPON James L. Herdt
- MCPON Terry D. Scott
- MCPON Joe R. Campa Jr.
- MCPON Rick D. West
- MCPON Michael D. Stevens
- MCPON Steven S. Giordano
- MCPON Official Photographs
- Trailblazers
- Historical Figures
- Secretaries of the Navy
- Benjamin Stoddert (1798 - 1801)
- Robert Smith (1801 - 1809)
- Paul Hamilton (1809 - 1812)
- William Jones (1813 - 1814)
- Benjamin W. Crowninshield (1815 - 1818)
- Smith Thompson (1819 - 1823)
- Samuel Southard (1823 - 1829)
- John Branch, Jr. (1829 - 1831)
- Levi Woodbury (1831 - 1834)
- Mahlon Dickerson (1834 - 1838)
- James K. Paulding (1838 - 1841)
- George Edmund Badger (1841)
- Abel P. Upshur (1841 - 1843)
- David Henshaw (1843 - 1844)
- Thomas W. Gilmer (1844)
- John Y. Mason (1844-1845) (1846-1849)
- George Bancroft (1845 - 1846)
- William B. Preston (1849 - 1850)
- William A. Graham (1850 - 1852)
- John P. Kennedy (1852 - 1853)
- James C. Dobbin (1853 - 1857)
- Isaac Toucey (1857 - 1861)
- Gideon Welles (1861 - 1869)
- Adolph Edward Borie (1869)
- George M. Robeson (1869 - 1877)
- Richard W. Thompson (1877 - 1880)
- Nathan Goff, Jr. (1881)
- William Henry Hunt (1881 - 1882)
- William Eaton Chandler (1882 - 1885)
- William C. Whitney (1885 - 1889)
- Benjamin F. Tracy (1889 - 1893)
- Hilary A. Herbert (1893 - 1897)
- John D. Long (1897 - 1902)
- William H. Moody (1902 - 1904)
- Paul Morton (1904 - 1905)
- Charles J. Bonaparte (1905 - 1906)
- Victor H. Metcalf (1906 - 1908)
- Truman H. Newberry (1908 - 1909)
- George von L. Meyer (1909 - 1913)
- Josephus Daniels (1913 - 1921)
- Edwin Denby (1921 - 1924)
- Charles F. Adams, III (1929 - 1933)
- Claude A. Swanson (1933 - 1939)
- Charles Edison (1940)
- William Franklin Knox (1940 - 1944)
- James Forrestal (1944 - 1947)
- John Lawrence Sullivan (1947 - 1949)
- Francis P. Matthews (1949 - 1951)
- Dan A. Kimball (1951 - 1953)
- Robert B. Anderson (1953 - 1954)
- Charles S. Thomas (1954 - 1957)
- Thomas S. Gates (1957 - 1959)
- William Birrell Franke (1959 - 1961)
- John Bowden Connally, Jr. (1961)
- Fred Korth (1962 - 1963)
- Paul B. Fay (acting) (1963)
- Paul Henry Nitze (1963 - 1967)
- Charles Fitz Baird (acting) (1967)
- Paul R. Ignatius (1967 - 1969)
- John Hubbard Chafee (1969 - 1972)
- John William Warner (1972 - 1974)
- J. William Middendorf (1974 - 1977)
- William Graham Claytor, Jr. (1977 - 1979)
- Edward Hidalgo (1979 - 1981)
- John Lehman (1981 - 1987)
- James H. Webb (1987 - 1988)
- William L. Ball (1988 - 1989)
- Henry L. Garrett III (1989 - 1992)
- Daniel Howard (acting) (1992)
- Sean Charles O'Keefe (1992 - 1993)
- ADM Frank B. Kelso, II (acting) (1993)
- John Howard Dalton (1993 - 1998)
- Richard Jeffrey Danzig (1998 - 2001)
- Robert B. Pirie, Jr. (acting) (2001)
- Gordon R. England (2001-2003) (2003-2005)
- Susan M. Livingstone (acting) (2003)
- Hansford T. Johnson (acting) (2003)
- Donald Charles Winter (2006 - 2009)
- Raymond Edwin Mabus, Jr. (2009 - 2017)
- Sean G. J. Stackley (acting) (2017)
- Richard V. Spencer (2017 - 2019)
- Thomas B. Modly (acting) (2019-2020)
- James E. McPherson (acting) (2020)
- Kenneth J. Braithwaite (2020-present)
- Profiles in Duty
- Medal of Honor Recipients
- Modern Navy Veterans
- Namesakes
- Sergeant Cornelius H. Charlton
- Private First Class Oscar P. Austin
- Civil Rights Activist Medgar Evers
- Private George Watson
- Cook First Class William Pinckney
- Commander Mary Sears
- Rear Admiral Grace Hopper
- Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt
- Senator Daniel K. Inouye
- Private First Class Herbert K. Pililaau
- Sergeant First Class Rodney J.T. Yano
- First Lieutenant Baldomero Lopez
- Master Sergeant Roy Benavidez
- Civil Rights Activist Cesar Chavez
- Admiral David Glasgow Farragut
- Private First Class Fernando Garcia
- Sergeant Alfredo Gonzalez
- Sergeant Rafael Peralta
- Chief Petty Officer James E. Williams
- Guide and Interpreter Sacagawea
- Sergeant Darrell Samuel Cole
- Notable Ships
- People--Women
- Finding Aids Glossaries Guides
- WAVES
- Navy Leadership
- Aviation
- Medical
- Image (gif, jpg, tiff)
Women in the U.S. Navy
The first women to serve in the U.S. Navy were nurses, beginning with the “Sacred Twenty” appointed after Congress established the Navy Nurse Corps on 13 May 1908. The first large-scale enlistment of women into the Navy met clerical shortages during World War I, and the second came months before the United States entered World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Public Law 689 creating the Navy’s women reserve program on 30 July 1942, which paved the way for officer and enlisted women to enter the Navy. On 22 February 1974, the Navy designated the first woman as an aviator. On 7 March 1994, the Navy issued the first orders for women to be assigned aboard a combatant ship, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69). Today, women serve in every rank from seaman to admiral and in every job from naval aviator to deep-sea diver.
Digital Resources
- Observance support content can be found here for use by commands and organizations.
- Women in the U.S. Navy Heritage Month Banners
- Women in Naval History Timeline infographic
Significant Dates and Historical Events for Women in the U.S. Navy
- Answering the Call: Civil War to World War II
- New Opportunities, New Achievements: Postwar Years to 1990s
- Leadership in the Modern Navy: 21st Century
- Twenty-five Years of Women Aboard Combatant Vessels
Women Trailblazers
- First African American Female Officers
- First Female Flag Officer: Rear Admiral Alene B. Duerk, NC, USN
- Making Dreams Come True
- Navy Women of Courage and Intelligence
- Captain Rosemary Mariner, USN
Select Ships Named in Honor of Notable Women
- Dorothea L. Dix (AP-67)
- Elizabeth C. Stanton (AP-69)
- Florence Nightingale (AP-70)
- Gabrielle Giffords (LCS-10)
- Higbee (DD-806)
- Hopper (DDG-70)
- Pocahontas (Screw Steamer)
- Pocahontas (SP-3044)
- Pocahontas (YT-266)
- Roosevelt (DDG-80)
- Susan B. Anthony (AP-72)
Collections Focused on Women in the U.S. Navy
- Art exhibit: Women in Uniform
- Photographs: Women in the Navy
Oral Histories
- Captain Ann Bernatitus, Nurse in the Pacific Theater, World War II
- Josie Mabel Brown, Navy nurse during 1918 influenza epidemic
- Lieutenant Dorothy Still Danner, Nurse, POW in the Philippines
- Lieutenant Commander Bobbie Hovis, Nurse in Vietnam
Biographies
- Captain Ann Bernatitus, Nurse Corps
- Captain Joy Bright Hancock, served in both World Wars
- Esther Voorhees Hasson, first Superintendent of the Navy Nurse Corps
- Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee, second Superintendent of the Navy Nurse Corps
- Grace Murray Hopper, pioneer in the field of computer science
- Admiral Michelle Howard, Commander, Allied Joint Force Command Naples, U.S. Naval Forces Europe, and U.S. Naval Forces Africa
- Susan Morrisey Livingstone, first woman Secretary of the Navy (acting from Jan.-Feb. 2003)
Further Reading
- Establishment of the Navy Nurse Corps, Public Law No. 115, 13 May 1908
- Navy Nurses Behind Enemy Lines in the Philippines
- I Was a Yeoman (F), experience of Mrs. Henry F. Butler, a Yeoman (F) during World War I
- History of Women in the Navy, Navy Department Press Release, 30 July 1942
- Establishment of the Women’s Reserve, Public Law No. 689, H.R. 6807, 30 July 1942 [Chapter 538]
- Great Lakes ALWAV Newsletter, April 1, 1943
- First Anniversary of WAVES, letter from President Roosevelt, July 30, 1943
- Equal Rights and Opportunities for Women in the Navy, Z-gram #116, August 7, 1972
- Navy to Begin Assigning Women to Ships, News Release, Office of Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs), October 24, 1978
- Role of Women in the Theater of Operations, from Appendix R, Conduct of the Persian Gulf War: Final Report to Congress, vol. 2. Washington: Department of Defense, 1992
- Women In the U.S. Navy: Historic Documents, History of Women on Navy ships in the Nineteenth Century; Memorandum from Alma R. Lawrence, Operational Archives Branch, for Lt. Morton, R-2511a, Main Navy. 23 Feb. 1951
- Women's Uniforms, Changes made in Wave Uniform Regulations
- Flying as a WASP, Women pilots set the standard in 1943
- WAVE QUARTERS "D", a living quarters booklet for new WAVES during WWII (Lieutenant Commander Katherine Porter Allen, W, USNR, Officer-in-Charge)
- WAVE QUARTERS "D", a living quarters booklet for new WAVES during WWII (Lieutenant Commander W-V(S), USNR, Officer in Charge)
- Look at you in the United States Navy, 1961 Navy recruiting booklet for enlisted women
- Chart Your Future As A Woman Officer, 1961 Navy recuiting booklet for women officers
- How to serve your country in the WAVES, a WWII information booklet on joining the WAVES
- Women's Reserve, US Naval Reserve Force, 1918
- Women's Uniform Regulations, Yeomen (F), US Naval Reserve Force, 1918
- Women's Winter Uniform Regulations, Yeomen (F), US Naval Reserve Force, 1919
- Uniform Regulations, Women's Reserve, United States Naval Reserve, 1943
Blog Posts
- The First WAVES
- Navigating the WAVES in World War II
- Navy Commissions First African American Woman Officers
- Finding Greatness: The Navy’s First Woman SCUBA Diver
- Honoring the Proud Women Who Serve in the U.S. Navy
- First Female Asian Officer Speaks About Her Naval Service
- Honoring the Legacy of Navy Nurses Worldwide
- Grace Hopper: Navy to the Core, a Pirate at Heart
- Remembering the First Black Women Naval Officers
- Navy Ships Honoring Women
- Navy Medicine's First Female Flight Surgeon Looks Back
- The Wartime Experiences of Two Women at Iwo Jima and Okinawa
Additional Resources
Footnotes
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