March 27, 2024
From Yeomanettes to Fighter Jets addresses a major element of twenty-first century sea power —the integration of women into all military units of the U.S. Navy. Randy Goguen delineates the cultural, economic, and political conditions as well as the technological changes that shaped this movement over the course of a century. Starting with the establishment of the Yeomen (F) in World War I and continuing through today to address the current arguments over the registration of women for Selective Service and the reform of the military justice system, Goguen describes how changes in civilian society affected the U. S. Navy and the role of Navy women. She highlights the contributions of key women and men in the military and civilian spheres who were willing to challenge convention and prejudice to advance the integration of women and make the U.S. Navy a stronger institution.
Integration has been a long and often contentious process, as women strived to overcome resistance imposed by prevailing cultural and institutional norms and patriarchal prejudices. Throughout the process, the decisive force driving progress was exigency. That exigency took various forms: two world wars, communist expansionism in the Cold War, the ending of the draft and the establishment of the All-Volunteer Force, as well as the political pressures posed by social change, especially the mid twentieth- century feminist and contemporary “Me Too” movements. Despite a deeply ingrained institutional resistance cultivated within an insular, often misogynist, sea-going subculture, today’s U.S. Navy could not meet its mission requirements without women. Goguen asserts, “Exigency is the mother of integration.”
Randy Carol Goguen served as an enlisted Marine and a Navy Yeoman in the reserves before she was commissioned as a naval intelligence officer in 1987. She retired at the rank of Commander in 2010 with more than 32 years of naval service. She holds a B.A. in international studies from the College of New Rochelle, an M.A. in International Affairs from the University of Kentucky, and a Ph.D. in military history from Temple University. She was employed as the civilian historian for the Office of Naval Intelligence from 2002 until her retirement in 2022. She resides in Fairhaven, Maryland.