What do you think?
Rate this book
Creating G. I. Jane
A compelling indictment of the social issues surrounding the Women's Army Corps in the 1940s.
288 pages, Paperback
First published April 15, 1996
1 person is currently reading
140 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
Shelved as 'research'
October 16, 2022� research tag: in an effort to organise my shelves, I'm going to be labelling the books I'm using for study purposes as I tend to dip in and out of these.
This is a fascinating, in-depth look at the experiences of women in the WAAC and WAC (as well as the WAVES and other groups) during WWII.
This is a fascinating, in-depth look at the experiences of women in the WAAC and WAC (as well as the WAVES and other groups) during WWII.
October 30, 2022
My interest in this text comes from studying my mother's career in the WAAC's which she joined shortly after the Corps' creation, in December 1942, and then her being "enlisted" into the WACs when it was formally recognized the following summer (1943). Her discharge papers list only the August 1943 date of enlistment and therefore seem to omit any service in the previous 8 months. My reference to the history into which her service was inserted is Mattie Treadwell's extraordinary (but necessarily limited in some key aspects) examination of the WAACs and WACs in 1954. But as Leisa Meyer points out quite convincingly in considering details previously omitted, the debates around the creation of the WAACs (non-military) were extremely vibrant from at least 1940 onward (in fact, the entire post WW I period included discussions of these initiatives), and what the WAACs were and what the WACs would become (as military) were not so much decided as grounded, the terms and oppositions defined, in this period. Meyer defines the terms of this creation of a "Women's Army", then explores the immediate slander campaign against WAACs as well as the way the their organization fought back. Meyer also studies how women's work was limited to specific roles, how sexuality was "regulated" by the WACs and thus the Army, and how the "threat" of lesbianism was constantly raised as ever-present during this era. I cannot recommend this book enough for its keen insight and research about a topic that might seem somewhat passe', but can never truly be so given the struggles that continue for women in the service.
October 5, 2020
I've been interested in reading this full book version since reading Meyer's original dissertation paper, and there's great content herein. A thoughtful analysis of the complex "female soldier" identity developed with the creation of the WAAC/WAC, specifically the societal pressure to maintain traditional gender norms even in this context that must inherently subvert them. I read this specifically to better understand the experiences of queer women, and while Meyer does devote a whole chapter to this, I wish there had been a bit more -- but that's mostly because it would better suit my own research. I've already started digging into the citations for more content. While occasionally a bit dry, as is common for academic texts, this was a thorough and well-researched text that's going to inform my historical romance writing.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get help and learn more about the design.