Defense Department Advisory Committee on Women in the Services The U . S . Defense Department Advisory Committee on Women in the Services ( DACOWITS ) was established in 1951 by Secretary of Defense George C . Marshall . Its members are civilian women and men appointed by the Secretary of Defense to provide advice and recommendations on matters and policies relating to the recruitment and retention , treatment , employment , integration , and well - being of women in the U . S . Armed Forces . Beginning in 2002 , the Committee began providing advice and recommendations on family issues related to recruitment and retention . DACOWITS ' recommendations have been instrumental in effecting changes to laws and policies pertaining to military women . Formation . The 1948 Women ' s Armed Services Integration Act established defined roles for women in the peacetime armed forces of the United States . They had previously only been allowed to serve as nurses in peacetime and in wider variety of roles only in time of war . The Committee with 49 women members was formed in August 1951 . One of its original members was actress Irene Dunn . The Committee was tasked with making recommendation to the Assistant Secretary for Manpower . Meeting for three days at the Pentagon in September 1951 , they heard presentations about recruiting and the possible need for a women ' s draft based on the failure of recruiting during World War II to meet the military services ' requirements for women . Personnel . In October 1955 , Margaret Divver , advertising manager of the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company , was named to head the Committee , replacing Oliver Crowther . The Committee was exploring ways to interest better qualified women in military careers and explaining the increasing variety of positions available to them . In October 1971 , Estelle M . Stacy was appointed to serve as chair for the calendar year 1972 , replacing Helen K . Leslie . After a November 1982 recommendation that 23 additional job categories be closed to women , increasing the number to 60 of 360 categories , the Committee ' s chair , Mary Huey of Texas Women ' s University , sought assurance from Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger that women ' s promotion would not suffer from these exclusions , and Weinberger did so . In 1998 the Committee , then composed of 18 women and two men and chaired by Judith A . Youngman , an associate professor of political science at the Coast Guard Academy , and reporting directly to the Secretary of Defense , recommended increased integration of men and women during basic training after finding that " most service members from every service believed that more gender integration of training was needed than currently existed " . It contradicted a late 1997 report of a committee headed by Senator Nancy Kassebaum Baker of Kansas , formed in response to reports of sexual harassment during training , that advocated the opposite . In 2001 , there were reports that the Bush administration was considering eliminating the Committee , along with a number of similar advisory groups devoted to women ' s concerns , and complaints that new appointments were being delayed .