Attention, Women! Join the WAAC is a 1943 U.S. Army recruiting poster for the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. A photographed woman in a trench coat and gloves, with a WAAC patch and sergeant's stripes, looks to one side, and the sheet directs readers to any Army recruiting station (NAID 513892).
What it shows
The poster uses a photograph. A woman in uniform, wearing a trench coat and gloves, has a WAAC patch and sergeant's stripes on her sleeve. She looks off to one side, as though speaking to a crowd outside the frame. The words are a command, a request, and directions.
Attention, Women!
JOIN THE WAAC
WOMEN'S ARMY AUXILIARY CORPS ★ U. S. ARMY
APPLY AT ANY U. S. ARMY RECRUITING AND INDUCTION STATION
[imprint:] P-32-RPB-3-5-43-20M [illegible: small Recruiting Publicity Bureau mark]
WAAC (sleeve patch)
Who issued it
The U.S. Army issued it for the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. The archive reads a small Recruiting Publicity Bureau mark beside the imprint code, but marks that part illegible. The record dates the poster to 1943. Neither the photographer nor the size of the printing is recorded, and the copy is in Record Group 44 at the National Archives. The archive's themes are gender and war, and its purpose is recruiting.
How to read it
The archive tags transfer and plain folks. The uniform carries the Army's authority, and the photograph gives the reader a real-looking woman to picture herself as, rather than an illustrator's ideal. The sheet also tells the reader where to apply.
The first word does two jobs. "Attention" is the drill command, and it is also the plain request to listen. The poster is addressed to women as a group, and it asks them to volunteer. That is the right relationship between an army and a free citizen. Nothing on the sheet threatens or shames the reader who stays home.
The same corps appears on the 1942 War Department security poster Silence means security. A 1944 Army recruiting sheet for the Women's Army Corps is Join the WAC Now!, and the Navy's equivalent in 1943 was Enlist in the WAVES. The sleeve patch and stripes are the only marks of rank the archive records; the sheet names no unit, no pay, and no term of service, so a reader learned the corps' name and where to apply, and nothing about the terms. The Roosevelt administration essay describes the wartime offices that ran such campaigns.
Sources
- FRAME object record, Attention, Women! Join the WAAC, 1943. U.S. Army, Women's Army Auxiliary Corps.
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, 44-PA-433, NAID 513892, retrieved by the archive 4 October 2026. Rights as recorded: public domain (U.S. government work).
