'We Shall Not Fail Freedom': Oveta Culp Hobby's role in the formation and implementation of the Women's Army Corps.

Abstract

Oveta Culp Hobby remains unknown to the average American, despite the fact that she was the first director of the Women’s Army Corp and was the second woman to hold a presidential cabinet position as the first Secretary of the Health, Education, and Welfare. This paper chronicles Hobby’s public life as well as her role in the formation and implementation of the Women’s Army Corps, an organization of women that helped the U.S. Army with non-combat related jobs. Oveta successfully directed the Women’s Army Corps for the first three years of its existence, including overseeing the transfer to Army status in 1943. Her intelligence, courage, and devotion to her country paved the way for women to integrate into the armed forces and to participate in public life in a larger way than ever before.