Dress Codes: The Work of Women in World War II

When Liza Mundy’s book Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II was published in October 2017, one of the women featured in it, Dorothy Ramale, was a spry 96 years old (at the time of this writing, she is 101!). A few months earlier, in June 2017, she participated in the Virginia War History Commission’s Profiles of Honor scanning project, presenting a volunteer in Fairfax, Virginia, with a portrait of herself dressed in uniform to be scanned and preserved by the Library of Virginia.

In the accompanying biographical information she provided, she was very succinct: “From June, 1943 to July, 1944 Ramale worked in Cryptographic Analysis for the Army Signal Corps in Arlington, Virginia.” Even that much information would have been illegal to share in years prior. A few months later, Liza Mundy introduced her readers to Ramale’s story alongside myriad other women who worked in cryptography during World War II.

The Profiles of Honor digital collection includes pictures of other World War II female veterans who are still waiting for their stories to be told in full. Although women were not allowed to serve as fully integrated members of the armed forces, they found ways to participate. Women served both overseas and in the United States in a variety of roles, both in the armed forces and as civilians.

Women served in various branches of the armed forces, often relegated to “reserve” or “auxiliary” sections specifically set up for women. Ramale herself worked as a civilian in the Army, and then served as a WAVE (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) in the Navy. Other Virginian WAVEs spotlighted in Profiles of Honor include Machinist Mate Third Class Charleton Virginia Wilhoit Sykes (1920-2004) of Albemarle County and Cecilia Pillis Galligan (1920-2013), who often was not mentioned in newspaper articles heralding the service of her seven brothers during the war.

In April 2022, the Library of Virginia Foundation received a $315,000 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant to digitize our 250,000 separation notices of WWII-era Virginia service members. This extensive project will take at least three years to complete but will allow the information on the forms to be searchable and accessible to online users. The information on the forms includes aspects of both the veterans’ civilian and military lives, which will allow researchers and historians to tell the stories of the women who served in the military more completely.