California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 33

Introduced by Assembly Member Atkins

(Coauthors: Assembly Members Eggman and Irwin)

(Coauthor: Senator Fuller)

February 25, 2015

Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 33—Relative to women veterans.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

ACR 33, as introduced, Atkins. Women veterans.

This measure would proclaim June 12, 2015, as Women Veterans’ Day and urge all citizens to join in celebrating the many contributions of women to our military forces.

Fiscal committee: no.

WHEREAS, Women have proudly served their country
throughout all periods of the history of the United States, whether
disguised as male soldiers during the American Revolution and
Civil War, as nurses in World War I, or as combat helicopter pilots
in Afghanistan; and

WHEREAS, Women have formally been a part of the United
States Armed Forces since the inception of the Army Nurse Corps
in 1901, but have informally served since the inception of our
nation’s military; and

WHEREAS, During the American Revolution, women served
on the battlefield alongside the men, mainly as nurses, water
bearers, often called “Molly Pitchers,” cooks, laundresses, and
saboteurs, and despite Army regulations that only men could enlist,
women who wanted to join in the fighting circumvented the rules
by masquerading as young men or boys; and

WHEREAS, In 1917, the Navy announced it would open
enlistment to women and about 12,000 female yeomen entered the
Navy and filled a variety of jobs including draftsmen, interpreters,
couriers, and translators; and

WHEREAS, Three hundred seven women enlisted in the Marine
Corps during World War I. Like their sisters in the Navy, they
were limited to the enlisted ranks and worked mainly in
Washington, D.C., doing various administrative jobs. Women’s
service contributions in World War I showed that they either had,
or could quickly learn, nontraditional skills needed by the military;
and

WHEREAS, Following Pearl Harbor, Congress authorized new
women’s components for each of the services and increased the
number of active duty positions in the Army and Navy Nurse
Corps. In May 1942, the Army was given the authority to establish
the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, also known as the WAACs.
The Navy, Coast Guard, and Marine Corps followed suit, but rather
than making women an auxiliary component, they opted to enroll
them in the reserves on the same basis as their male counterparts;
and

WHEREAS, At the end of the war in 1945, of the approximately
12 million people remaining in the Armed Forces, about 280,000
were women; and

WHEREAS, With the passage of the Women’s Armed Services
Integration Act of 1948, women became a permanent part of the
United States military, but women continued to be restricted to 2
percent of the military population. That restriction was finally
lifted in 1967 with the amendment of the Women’s Armed Services
Integration Act, which also opened senior officer ranks to women;
and

WHEREAS, The early 1990s were a historic time for women
in the military with over 40,000 women deploying in support of
the Persian Gulf War, making women service members more
visible in the eyes of the public. In addition, in 1992, the Defense
Authorization Act repealed combat exclusion laws that had
prevented women from flying combat aircrafts; and

WHEREAS, Women who have served in the United States
military are often referred to as “invisible veterans” because their
service contributions until the 1970s went largely unrecognized
by politicians, the media, academia, and the general public; and

WHEREAS, Even though women have been officially serving
in the military since the creation of the Army Nurse Corps in 1901,
they have not always been considered qualified for veteran status
for the purpose of receiving benefits from the Department of
Veterans Affairs. Even after women were granted veteran status,
issues of access, exclusion, and improper management of their
health care still remained; and

WHEREAS, It was not until well after World War II that women
who served in the military began to officially be recognized as
veterans; and

WHEREAS, In the late 1970s and early 1980s, many of the
contributions made by women in World War II were formally
recognized through laws that granted these women with veteran
status for their time in service. This opened the doors for women
to take advantage of programs, opportunities, and benefits from
the federal and state governments, the Department of Veterans
Affairs, and other veteran service organizations; and

WHEREAS, The 1980 decennial census marked the first time
that information on women veterans was ever captured in a large
national survey. At the time of the 1980 decennial census, women
made up just over 2 percent of the veteran population. Today, that
proportion has increased to almost 8 percent; and

WHEREAS, Over the past 20 years, the Veterans Health
Administration (VHA) has introduced initiatives designed to
improve health care access and quality of care for women veterans;
and

WHEREAS, In 2008, VHA’s Women Veterans Health Strategic
Health Care Group began a five-year plan to redesign the nation’s
health care delivery system for women. A fundamental component
of this plan was to ensure that all women veterans had access to
comprehensive primary care from skilled women’s health
providers; and

WHEREAS, There are currently over 2 million women veterans
living in the United States and Puerto Rico and of those 2 million,
165,962 make California their home; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate
thereof concurring, That the Legislature, hereby proclaims June
12, 2015, as Women Veterans’ Day, and urges all citizens to join
in celebrating the many contributions of women to our military
forces; and be it further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies
of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.