National Archives News

Fellowship Recipient Explores History of Women’s Conscription

By Angela Tudico | National Archives News

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2021 Cokie Roberts Women's History Fellow Kara Dixon Vuic, PhD.

WASHINGTON, March 29, 2023 — Kara Dixon Vuic has spent the last year traveling to the National Archives at College Park and Presidential Libraries around the country, researching her book project, “Drafting Women,” on the history of women and selective service. 

Vuic’s research intersects with women’s 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 Cokie Roberts Women’s History Fellowship. Supported by the National Archives Foundation, the fellowships are awarded to early to mid-career historians, journalists, authors, or graduate students who perform and publish new research to elevate women’s history using records held by the National Archives. 

Vuic is a professor of War, Conflict, and Society in Twentieth-Century America at Texas Christian University. She earned her doctorate and master’s degree in history from Indiana University and is a summa cum laude graduate of Marshall University, with a bachelor’s degree in history and English.

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"Carry On," a newsletter from the Woman's Committee, Michigan Division, February 8, 1919, highlights women’s efforts to coordinate their wartime work. (National Archives, Records of the Council of National Defense; photo courtesy of Kara Dixon Vuic)

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Petition sent in support of a national draft of nurses, April 12, 1945. (National Archives, Records of the Office of the Surgeon General (Army); photo courtesy of Kara Dixon Vuic)

Vuic’s 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 National Archives, 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.

“The National Archives has been my home for all of these projects because it houses the military records I use,” Vuic said. “They also have lesser-known records, like those of the Women's Bureau in World War I.” 

While Vuic’s 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 National Archives, 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 Vuic’s research is uncovering, thanks in part to the support provided by the fellowship, is the history of women’s conscription that was considered but never passed into law.

The fellowship is supported by the National Archives Foundation’s Cokie Roberts Research Fund for Women’s 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.

“Cokie was a leader on our board and a lifelong advocate for the Archives,” said Jim Blanchard, President and Chair of the National Archives Foundation Board of Directors and former Michigan governor. “These fellowships are a wonderful tribute to her ongoing inspiration to the field of women’s history.”

The Cokie Roberts Fellowship for Women’s History is accepting applications for its next round of fellows. Applications are due April 23, 2023. 

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