I've been reading a lot about women physicians and the first WAACs in the military. Strictly G.I.: The WWII Letters of Cpl. Wanda M. Renn was about one of the first women who were accepted in the Army as WAACs (later WACs) during WWII. They were supposed to be temporary became permanent towards the end of the War.

One of the most interesting things was the opposition that many had to having women officially in the military. During previous wars, women had been nurses only--in a kind of special group. So, when Congress passed a bill allowing this, there was a lot of controversy. People spread rumors about the women: They were promiscuous, having sex with soldiers, officers, etc. Or, they were lesbians and doing God-knows-what in the barracks.

Interestingly enough, however, the Army did not grant these women official status, at first (WAACs), but eventually they became WACs which meant they were more on equal standing with the men.

I enjoyed reading the letters. A granddaughter published her grandmother's letters from the time she was in the Army. The young woman served in England, North Africa and France. She was in communications and attached to SHAEF (supreme headquarters allied expeditionary force) and was not in danger (actually was shelled once, though) for the most part. Wanda wasn't a great writer, but she showed her daily life with interesting detail.



'Mary Edwards Walker: Above and Beyond' was the story of the first woman to work with the U.S.Army officially as a contract surgeon. This was, to my surprise, during the Civil War.

 Dr. Edwards attended a holistic medical school (which made it fairly progressive at the time) not too long after Elizabeth Blackwell became an MD. She was quite a character and very unusual. Edwards was a suffragist but managed to antagonize the leadership of the movement by her insistence on wearing pants. She designed her own outfits and very, very rarely wore the traditional hoop skirts and corset. She felt they were unhealthy (the former for trailing in the dirt & picking up filth and the latter, well, that's obvious. You can't breathe in them!). During the Civil War, she refused to help out as a mere nurse and after much wrangling and effort became, officially, a contract assistant surgeon (a general term for doctors in the military--she didn't do any amputating) in a military hospital (Note: contract surgeons are civilian doctors who work for the military. Many, if not most, of the doctors during the Civil War were contract surgeons). She managed to get herself captured by the Confederates as a spy (quite probably was, working with Sherman) and was held as a prisoner of war. 'Endeared' herself to various officials of both armies by nagging them into improving conditions in every place where she worked.

At one point, because of her service, she was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the first woman to receive it. Later on, when combat soldiers questioned its being awarded too frivously (all the soldiers of one unit received one), the Army took it away. She refused to give it up and wore it until she died. It was restored later in the 1970s.

There was one other woman who was a doctor during the Civil War, but she managed to do it by disguising herself as a man.

The book goes on to detail the rest of her life--she was very cantankerous. During WWI, she was active in recruiting and training nurses. I have to say, I admire her greatly, but I am not sure that I would have liked her.

'Women Doctors in War' was truly fascinating. I learned a lot from this book. One of my characters is a woman doctor during WWII, and I have had a problem with some of the writers in my group objecting to her being a doctor--they maintain there weren't any.

There were women doctors serving as contract surgeons in the Spanish American War and during WWI! Some went overseas with surgical teams. It seems that at the turn of the century, women doctors (American medical schools had quotas--5% of a class could be female) tended to go into OB-GYN and pediatrics (obviously). Less obviously, women found less opposition in the areas of anesthesia and 'neuropsychiatry.' I guess they were considered more nurturing fields. The latter really expanded with the 'Shellshocked' casualties of the war. Women doctors were often more successful with these broken soldiers than their male peers--soldiers apparently were able to open up to a woman more comfortably than to a man. It's a male ego thing. This seems to be true even to present day military.

WWI didn't have field hospitals, so medical personnel were rarely in direct danger from the enemy. There were several women who ended up in Europe as physicians. Contract surgeons, however, were still civilians and did not receive army rank, pay, or benefits.

The book goes into great detail about each woman--education, personal life, etc.--although there isn't much known about some of them. The book is very dry--it feels a little like a doctoral thesis--lots of research, carefully supported conclusions, and not much speculation about feelings and the like. The reader has to stop and imagine what the lives of these women felt like.

During the SAW and The Great War, medical schools, hospitals, etc., were more open to admitting women. It looked good for women who wanted to be doctors. After 1918, however, the schools, residencies, etc., closed back up. It became very difficult for women again--there wasn't a shortage of doctors without a war.

In WWII, the Army drafted doctors as well as young men. This meant that there was a shortage of doctors in general. Schools, residencies and other training programs blossomed. Male medical school students were given free education and condensed training in order to get them into the military sooner. Women students were not offered such benefits. However, the military took women on as contract surgeons (again). The formation of the WAACs however, meant that the Army needed women doctors--primarily to take care of the new women in the service and Army dependents.

Many women volunteered. It is fascinating to read of their backgrounds. There is not a lot of discussion about individual incidents of discrimination or harrassment, but there is general discussion of these problems. The women doctors at first were no really in the army (WAACs) but later were commissioned. They generally received a lower rank than an equally qualified man. They were often assigned to paper work/administrative tasks or routine exams. Or ended up at an Army post in the U.S. taking care of WACs or dependents. In Europe, they served in hospitals, again performing the usual things. The women had to fight, sometimes, to get an assignment in keeping with their training--a plastic surgeon, for example, spent much of her service doing routine exams. Even psychiatrists found themselves looking after women soldiers.

Many found ways to lobby themselves into better, more meaningful, more appropriate assignments, but it usually took some real effort.

The book traced careers of women physicians up until present times. After WWII, most were summarily let go, The pevailing attitude was that women belonged in the home. However, it was only a few years later that the Korean War broke out. Again, women were able to get into places they couldn't during peace time.

In the mid50s and 60s, again, there was the back last and quota system. But with more women doctors in the military (all branches), there was expanded opportunity. However, they never had the opportunities of equivalent males.

However, the end of the draft made a huge difference. For one thing, the military needed doctors, plain and simple. While social attitudes can be medieval, the institutions are very practical. They established incentive programs for qualified students--get a free medical education, serve in the military for a few years and then you're free and clear. They did not specify the gender required for applicants when establishing these programs. The book goes into a lot of detail on how many things have changed for women.

Anyway, I found the book very enlightening. The author explains that there are still social obstacles to overcome (one woman stationed overseas, for example, was shut out socially by all the male officers, and she outranked the nurses. She had no one to hang out with, as it were. The military does have a strict caste system). Some women doctors were hassled by angry (jealous?) nurses. Others were helped and nurtured by them. But as more and more women are in the military and at higher ranks, they will mentor and bring along the young women and help them ascend even higher (military culture is that at a certain rank, higher officers do this with younger ones--help them build a resume as it were).

However, I wouldn't recommend it unless you are very interested in women doctors and the military.

These weren't fun reads, but I learned an awful lot, and was very glad of August's assignment as it steered me to these books. I liked the last one the best.

les