WAVES WAVES on 30 July 1942 was established as a World War II division of the U . S . Navy , that consisted entirely of women in the 1940s , but on 12 June 1948 , women gained permanent status in the armed services of the United States . The name was the acronym for " Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service " ( as well as an allusion to ocean waves ) . The word " emergency " implied that the acceptance of women was due to the unusual circumstances of World War II , and at the end of the war the women would not be allowed to continue in Navy careers , but it or its successors continued for decades afterwards . Their official name was the U . S . Naval Reserve ( Women ' s Reserve ) , but the nickname as the WAVES stuck . History . Mildred McAfee , President of Wellesley College , was sworn in as a Naval Reserve Lieutenant Commander in early August 1942 . She was the first female commissioned officer in U . S . Navy history , and the first director of the WAVES . This occurred two months after the WAAC ( Women ' s Auxiliary Army Corps ) was established , and Eleanor Roosevelt had convinced the Congress to authorize the women ' s component of the Navy . The Women entering as enlisted personnel in the Navy or Coast Guard attended the V10 WAVE Enlisted Rating Volunteer Program . Women seeking to become officers in the WAVES or SPARS attended the V9 WAVE Officer Candidate Volunteer Program . Officer candidates went through basic training as seamen recruits , then became midshipmen during officer training , and graduated as ensigns . The WAVE Graduates from the V9 and V10 programs were considered part of the U . S . Naval Reserve . The important distinction between the WAAC and the WAVES was that the WAAC was an " auxiliary " organization , serving " with " the Army , not " in " it . From the very beginning , the WAVES was an official part of the Navy , and its members held the same rank and ratings as male personnel . They also received the same pay and were subject to military discipline . The WAAC became the Women ' s Army Corps ( WAC ) on 3 July 1943 , giving its members military status similar to that of the WAVES . The WAVES could not serve aboard combat ships or aircraft , and initially were restricted to duty in the continental United States . Late in World War II , they were authorized to serve in certain U . S . possessions , and a number were sent to Hawaii . The war ended before any WAVES could be sent to other locations . Within their first year , the WAVES were 27 , 000 strong . A large proportion of the WAVES did clerical work , but some took positions in the aviation community , medical professions , communications , intelligence , storekeeper , science and technology . The WAVES did not initially accept African - American women into the division . In November 1944 , Harriet Ida Pickens and Frances Wills graduated from the Naval Reserve Midshipmen ' s School ( Women ' s Reserve ) at Northampton , Massachusetts , and became the first female African - American WAVE officers . From the fall of 1944 onwards , the Navy trained roughly one black woman for every 36 white women enlisted in the WAVES ; this was about 2 . 77 % , below the 10 % cap agreed upon by the armed services in 1940 . With the passage of the " Women ' s Armed Services Integration Act " ( Public Law 625 ) on 12 June 1948 , women gained permanent status in the armed services . To reflect this , the V9 and V10 Volunteer Reserve programs were discontinued and renamed the W9 Women ' s Officer Training and W10 Women ' s Enlisted Training programs . Although the WAVES officially ceased to exist , the acronym was in common use well into the 1970s . On 7 July 1948 , Kay Langdon , Wilma Marchal , Edna Young , Frances Devaney , Doris Robertson , and Ruth Flora became the first six enlisted women to be sworn into the regular U . S . Navy . On 15 October 1948 , the first eight women were commissioned in the regular Navy : Joy Bright Hancock , Winifred Quick Collins , Ann King , Frances Willoughby , Ellen Ford , Doris Cranmore , Doris Defenderfer , and Betty Rae Tennant took their oaths as naval officers . List of Directors . The director held the position of Assistant Chief of Naval Personnel for Women during the years of 1942 - 1972 . In 1972 , the office was disestablished in favor of integration of women into the main force . There still remained , however , the office of Bureau of Personnel Special Assistant for Women ' s Policy ] ( PERS - 00W ) , which existed until 1991 . WAVES song . The WAVES kept the homefront affairs of the US Navy going while the men were assigned to ships serving around the globe . While the official song of the US Navy men was " Anchors Aweigh " , the WAVES official song was sung in counterpoint to the men : Music and words to this and other songs sung by the WAVES can be found in " Marching to Victory " , a 1943 booklet published at the Naval Reserve Midshipmen ' s School ( WR ) , Northampton , Massachusetts .