Yeoman (F)

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?"

[3] Typically, female Yeoman reservists performed clerical duties such as typing, stenography, bookkeeping, accounting, inventory control, and telephone operation.

A few became radio operators, electricians, draftsmen, pharmacists, photographers, telegraphers, fingerprint experts, chemists, torpedo assemblers and camouflage designers.

As well as their many military duties, the women were taught to march and drill at public rallies, recruiting campaigns, war bond drives, and troop send-offs.

They received the same benefits and responsibilities as men, including identical pay (US$28.75 per month), and were treated as veterans after the war.

[7] These first black women to serve in the United States Navy were 16 Yeomen (F)—the total would rise to 24[8]—from some of "Washington's elite black families" who "worked in the Muster Roll division at Washington's Navy Yard...."[9] Two uniforms were prescribed for women in the USNRF.

Both consisted of a single-breasted Norfolk style coat with gilt buttons and a rating badge on the left sleeve, worn over a skirt of the same fabric and shirt waist.

The skirt was hemmed to four inches above the ankle, and the shirt waist was designed to be worn either open at the neck or buttoned.

The first all-woman American Legion post was formed in Boston, Massachusetts, with Daisy May Pratt Erd as its first commander.