In 1917 a loophole allowed for women to officially enlist in the Navy Reserves. The jobs these women could have were limited and most became yeomen, which is why they got the nickname the YEOMANETTES! (Adding “ettes” to the end words makes it feminine, and there for more socially acceptable) Approximately 305 women also joined the Marines, joining the Marines was a bit more challenging, the women enlisting had to already be good stenographers and were tested before entry. These women Marines were unofficially nick named “Marinettes”. The Marine Corps disapproved of the nickname.
I should note that Women were allowed to join the Navy Nurse Corps as early as 1908 (and women had unofficially been assisting the navy as nurses well before that.) However the women who worked in the Nurse Corps did not receive official rank, and equal pay, until 1944. (and even then it was a "temporary commissioning") the very first official Navy Nurses also got a badass nickname, they were called the “Sacred Twenty.”
As always it's hard to squeeze all the information into a short video, so for more information on this topic check out these links below
Women of ww1
The book “A few good women” by Evelyn M Monahan and Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee
Women Marines of ww1
Naval act of 1916
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