Women in the United States Navy
In 2019, a woman successfully completed SEAL Officer Assessment and Selection (SOAS), but opted to join another unit of the Navy.
The SWCC directly supports the SEALs and other commando units, and are experts in covert insertion and extraction special operations tactics.
[12][13] After the establishment of the Nurse Corps in 1908 by an Act of Congress, twenty women were selected as the first members and assigned to the Naval Medical School Hospital in Washington, D.C.
Naval Reserve Act of 1916 permitted the enlistment of qualified "persons" for service; Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels asked, "Is there any law that says a Yeoman must be a man?"
During World War I Navy women served around the continental U.S. and in France, Guam and Hawaii, mostly as Yeomen (F), but also as radio operators, electricians, draftsmen, pharmacists, photographers, telegraphers, fingerprint experts, chemists, torpedo assemblers and camouflage designers.
[30] In 1943, Thelma Bendler Stern, an engineering draftsman, became the first woman assigned to perform duties aboard a United States Navy ship as part of her official responsibilities.
In 1944, Lieutenant Harriet Ida Pickens and Ensign Frances Wills were commissioned as the first African-American female navy officers.
[31] The first Black woman sworn into the Navy Nurse Corps was Phyllis Mae Dailey, a Columbia University student from New York, on 8 March 1945.
[32] Three other African American women—Edith Mazie DeVoe, Helen Fredericka Turner, and Eula Lucille Stimley—also became ensigns in the Navy Nurse Corps during the war.
356, enacted June 12, 1948) is a United States law that enabled women to serve as permanent, regular members of the armed forces, including the Navy.
[42][43] That year, Congress approved a change to Title 10 USC Section 6015 to permit the navy to assign women to fill sea duty billets on support and noncombatant ships.
In 1974, the navy became the first service to graduate a woman pilot, LT Barbara Allen Rainey, followed closely by classmates Judith Neuffer, Ana Marie Fuqua, Rosemary Bryant Mariner, Jane Skiles O'Dea and Joellen Drag.
[50] Frontiero v. Richardson, 411 U.S. 677 (1973), was a landmark Supreme Court case[51] which decided that benefits given by the military to the family of service members cannot be given out differently because of sex.
[45] While still barred from serving on combatant vessels, enlisted women were accepted for training in the Naval Nuclear Power Program in the early 80s.
Because all nuclear powered vessels in the Navy at this time were combatants, these women were assigned to either prototype training billets or service/support roles on tenders and shore facilities.
[57] A group of up to eight female Supply Corps Officers was also expected to complete requisite training and begin submarine service in the same time frame.
[63] In August 2016, Chief Petty Officer Dominique Saavedra became the first enlisted female sailor to earn her submarine qualification, and was assigned to USS Michigan (SSGN-727).
In 1978 Congress approved a change to Title 10 USC Section 6015 to permit the navy to assign women to fill sea duty billets on support and noncombatant ships.
Panetta's decision gave the U.S. military services until January 2016 to seek special exceptions if they believed any positions must remain closed to women.
[48] The former policy set by Congress and the Secretary of Defense, effective 1 October 1994, excluded women from direct ground combat billets in the military, stating: The Physical Fitness Assessment (PFA) is conducted twice a year for all sailors, which includes: Physical Readiness Test (PRT) include different standards for male and female sailors.
Factors evaluated are: PT Fitness Standards (NSW/NSO programs only): Frontiero v. Richardson, 411 U.S. 677 (1973), was a landmark Supreme Court case [51] which decided that benefits given by the military to the family of service members cannot be given out differently because of sex.
[52] Spouse co-location assignments are fully supported by the Chief of Naval Personnel and when requested become the highest priority and main duty preference consistent with the needs of the navy.
[113] According to scholars, since at least as early as 1960, Executive Order 10450 was applied to ban transgender individuals from serving in the United States military.
In an example cited by Zimmerman, in 1993 as the USS Cape Cod prepared to depart on a deployment cruise, 25 female sailors, out of a crew of 1,500, reported being pregnant shortly before the scheduled departure and were reassigned to shore duty.
A Virginia Pilot article in October 2007 reported on the navy's policy decision as a means to improve long term retention of trained personnel.
Since shore-based assignments for pregnant sailors were extended in 2007, the number of navy women leaving deploying units to have children rose from 1,770 in June 2006 to 3,125 as of 1 August 2009.
[55][56] Previously there had been concern about bringing women onto submarines because living quarters offered little privacy and weren't considered suitable for mixed-gender habitation.
[58] Reasons included the fact that larger SSGN and SSBN submarines now in the Fleet had more available space and could accommodate female Officers with little or no modification.
[55][58] In February 2010, the Secretary of Defense approved the proposed policy and signed letters formally notifying Congress of the intended change.
After receiving no objection, the Department of the Navy officially announced on 29 April 2010, that it had authorized women to serve on board submarines moving forward.
