“Asking for No Favors”: Anna Gordon Speaks for Working Mothers

Background: In testimony to a U.S. Senate subcommittee in 1953, Mrs. Anna Gordon, an officer in the U.S. Navy Women’s Reserves, argued for women’s right to combine motherhood and careers, a point of view that had seemed viable during the war years but changed soon afterward.  Along with the integration of African Americans in the military, the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act of 1948 had established a permanent presence for women in all branches of the armed forces. In October 1949 an Army regulation required the discharge of female servicewomen who had children under the age of eighteen. Mothers of dependent children were ineligible to enlist in reserve units and were discharged after childbirth or adoption. In the congressional session following the passage of the new regulation, the Senate passed a bill allowing the reinstatement of women with dependent children; however, the House did not vote on it, and the bill failed to become law.

Statement of Mrs. Anna Gordon, East Orange, N.J.

First of all, it would seem to me that forcing the resignation of women with minor children is in this day and age an anachronism.

The choice between marriage or a career or children or a career is no longer a problem. A woman who has spent years in preparation for a career and has a living interest in what she is doing does not nowadays give it up with a sigh of resignation when she is preparing for the role of motherhood; nor does she usually give up thoughts of motherhood for a career; the modern woman finds that both are compatible, except for a temporary withdrawal from professional life—and I think we have heard how temporary sometimes that may be. . . .

In this day and age homemaking hardly takes up all of a woman’s time and many a mother who is not forced to work because of economic pressure still does much more than a routine job even if at considerable inconvenience to herself, rather than retire. . . .

Can the services afford to discard these women? They are asking for no favors, merely for the opportunity to remain available if needed. In the event of an emergency, would these women be content to stay at home and await the return of the children from school, do you suppose, when they are not even spending their days in this fashion when there is no emergency? And I hardly think that these women are not representative of others all over the country.

Source: Appointment or Retention of Certain Female Reserve Personnel with Minor Children, Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Armed Services, United States Senate, 83rd Congress, 1st Session, on S. 1492, May 14 and 15, 1953. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1953.