Fellowship Recipient Explores History of Womenβs Conscription
By Angela Tudico | ΝώΔαΛΉΘΛΣιΐΦ³‘ News
WASHINGTON, March 29, 2023 β Kara Dixon Vuic has spent the last year traveling to the ΝώΔαΛΉΘΛΣιΐΦ³‘ at College Park and Presidential Libraries around the country, researching her book project, βDrafting Women,β on the history of women and selective service.
Vuicβs research intersects with womenβs history and military history, as she seeks out the discussions surrounding the possibility of wartime conscription for U.S. women from World War I through the 1970s.
She is conducting her research as an inaugural recipient of the . Supported by the , the fellowships are awarded to early to mid-career historians, journalists, authors, or graduate students who perform and publish new research to elevate womenβs history using records held by the ΝώΔαΛΉΘΛΣιΐΦ³‘.
Vuic is a professor of War, Conflict, and Society in Twentieth-Century America at Texas Christian University. She earned her doctorate and masterβs degree in history from Indiana University and is a summa cum laude graduate of Marshall University, with a bachelorβs degree in history and English.
"Carry On," a newsletter from the Woman's Committee, Michigan Division, February 8, 1919, highlights womenβs efforts to coordinate their wartime work. (ΝώΔαΛΉΘΛΣιΐΦ³‘, Records of the Council of National Defense; photo courtesy of Kara Dixon Vuic)
Petition sent in support of a national draft of nurses, April 12, 1945. (ΝώΔαΛΉΘΛΣιΐΦ³‘, Records of the Office of the Surgeon General (Army); photo courtesy of Kara Dixon Vuic)
Vuicβs research project goes beyond examining the debates of women registering for selective service to include drafting women for nursing, factory work, and other essential homefront activities during wartime mobilization. This comprehensive history of women and selective service in the United States more broadly asks: what can we compel women to do during times of war and conflict?
Vuic said she feels at home at the ΝώΔαΛΉΘΛΣιΐΦ³‘, where she conducted research for her previous books. Officer, Nurse, Woman: The Army Nurse Corps in the Vietnam War focused on the Army Nurse Corps in Vietnam, and The Girls Next Door: Bringing the Home Front to the Front Lines focused on the ways women served, both in the Armed Forces and as civilians, on the front lines during the World Wars.
βThe ΝώΔαΛΉΘΛΣιΐΦ³‘ has been my home for all of these projects because it houses the military records I use,β Vuic said. βThey also have lesser-known records, like those of the Women's Bureau in World War I.β
While Vuicβs previous research explored how women were able to serve in wars and conflicts during the 20th century, her latest research examines what happens when women are prevented from serving.
For this research she revisited many military and nursing corps records, as well as collections housed at the Presidential Libraries, to tease out the intra-governmental debates relating to women and selective service.
Vuic said she expected to find the top-down discussions among government and military officials in the holdings of the ΝώΔαΛΉΘΛΣιΐΦ³‘, such as when President Carter proposed women register for selective service, but she did not necessarily expect the voices of women on the ground to shine through.
For example, while the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration debated what to do in the face of a severe nursing shortage during World War II, Black nurses wrote to express their support of his proposed national draft of nurses. In April 1945, these women sent a stack of signed petitions noting not only support but also the need to remove discriminatory barriers that prevented Black nurses from serving.
The debate over whether to draft nurses was ultimately settled by the end of World War II, when the need for nurses drastically declined. But what Vuicβs research is uncovering, thanks in part to the support provided by the fellowship, is the history of womenβs conscription that was considered but never passed into law.
The fellowship is supported by the ΝώΔαΛΉΘΛΣιΐΦ³‘ Foundationβs Cokie Roberts Research Fund for Womenβs History, which launched in 2019 to honor noted author and journalist Cokie Roberts, who spent her career shining light on the stories of many women who had an impact on U.S. history.
βCokie was a leader on our board and a lifelong advocate for the Archives,β said Jim Blanchard, President and Chair of the ΝώΔαΛΉΘΛΣιΐΦ³‘ Foundation Board of Directors and former Michigan governor. βThese fellowships are a wonderful tribute to her ongoing inspiration to the field of womenβs history.β
The is accepting for its next round of fellows. Applications are due April 23, 2023.