Collections Highlight –War Brides & Wedding Dresses
WWII Military Women & Marriage Policy

World War II (WWII) is said to have been one of the defining events of the 20th century–for our country and for the nearly 400,000 military women who served in her defense. Entry qualifications for women joining the US Armed Forces stipulated everything from age to education, health to citizenship, and pregnancy to parenthood–and not surprisingly, marital status. Marriage policy varied greatly from service to service and these policies underwent much change during this era as recruiting more women became necessary and as services could not afford to lose well-qualified women candidates.

Army Women
Early in the war, marriage policy for Army nurses changed when the War Department lifted the ban on marriage for nurses. The new policy allowed them to remain in service–at the discretion of the Surgeon General–for the duration of the war plus six months.¹

For women who served in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) and Women’s Army Corps (WAC), marriage policy was also regulated by the War Department. During this era, the policy stated that marriage did not disqualify a woman from enlisting, nor did it provide a basis for requesting a transfer or discharge. The only requirement that impacted women, besides local directives, was the change of name policy. Upon marriage women were required to forward a change of name through their chain of command. Though obtaining a unit commander’s permission to marry was not required by Army regulations, a commander could choose to require it at his or her unit by publishing a local regulation.

Local directives concerning marriage were strictly the prerogative of the theater and unit commanders and these proved significant to the WAACs/WACs serving around the globe. For instance, commanders in the United States, as well as the North African, Mediterranean and Middle East theaters allowed military personnel to marry. If you served in the European Theater, marriage was permitted, but in order to discourage hasty wartime marriages and pregnancies, one spouse was immediately transferred to a distant station within the command or out of the theater. In the China-Burma-India Theater, marriage was only permitted if the woman was pregnant; but the pregnant, now-married WAC was sent home and discharged immediately.²

Navy Women
Women serving in the Navy Reserve (WAVES), wartime policies concerning marriage changed throughout the war. Initially, WAVES could not marry men in the US military and could not marry at all during indoctrination or training periods. The Navy soon saw the impracticality of this policy–such restrictions could mean the loss of well-qualified women or that women might hesitate to sign up. In 1942, the Navy changed its policy allowing WAVES to marry men of any service except the Navy, but a year later the policy changed again to allow women to marry naval men after completing initial and specialist training. Later in 1943, the regulations were again modified to allow WAVES to marry with permission during specialist training.

Marriage policy, however, was not as liberal or forgiving for women who served in the Navy Nurse Corps. Until nearly the end of the war, strict adherence to the no-marriage policy remained in effect for nurses. In fact, if a Navy nurse married, it was grounds for immediate discharge. Finally in January 1945, the Navy found it necessary to suspend its marriage ban for nurses and also offered reappointment of nurses who previously left the service. The repealed marriage ban was short lived. By November that same year, navy nurses were again prohibited from marrying while in service.³

Women Marines
Regulations governing the marital status of Women Marines were not quite as complicated as those for women serving in the Army or Navy. For women joining the USMC (WR), both officer and enlisted, could serve regardless of marital status, but they could not be married to a fellow Marine. Over time, Marine policy also relaxed allowing the wives of enlisted Marines to join.⁴

Coast Guard SPARs
Probably the most straightforward of all service policies concerning marriage was in the Coast Guard. Married women were welcome to join the SPARs as long as they were not married to another Coast Guardsman. Single women were required to not marry until after their training was completed.⁵

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¹Mary T. Sarnecky, A History of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press,1999), 181, 453.