The Women’s Armed Services Integration Act of 1948, or 62 Stat. 356, was signed into law by President Truman on June 12, 1948. The bill, S. 1641 – “To establish the Women’s Army Corps in the Regular Army, to authorize the enlistment and appointment of women in the Regular Navy and Marine Corps and the Naval and Marine Corps Reserve, and for other purposes” – as reported by the Senate Committee on Armed Services was a combination of bills recommended by the War and Navy Departments.
This law authorized women to serve as permanent, regular members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. Prior to this act, women, with the exception of nurses, could not serve in the regular forces during peacetime. The legislation was developed following World War II, in which women served with distinction as part of components like the Women’s Army Corps.
In this letter dated January 30, 1948, then Chief of Staff of the United States Army, General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote to Congress very much in support of the bill: “I assure you that I look upon this measure as a “must,” because the Corps is necessary both as a measure for assisting the Army during these troubled and almost chaotic times and as a guarantee that we will be better prepared in the event another grave emergency should strike.”
Letter from Dwight D. Eisenhower, Papers Accompanying Specific Bills and Resolutions of the Committee on Armed Services, HR80A-D2, Jan. 30, 1948, Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, Record Group 233.
