Stratton, Dorothy C. (1899–)

Director of U.S. Coast Guard SPARs

During World War II, America needed every available man and woman to contribute to the war effort. Since the great majority of military jobs were non-combat, clerical positions, often held by women in civilian society, the shortage of men could best be met by women. American notions of proper gender roles, however, demanded that first a suitable [Page 811]gender-segregated organization be created to handle the influx of women workers. Dorothy Stratton served as the first director of the Coast Guard women's organization and created the nickname SPARs from the initials of the Coast Guard motto, Semper paratus(Always Ready).

Dorothy Stratton was born on March 24, 1899, in Brookfield, Missouri, the daughter of a Baptist minister. She earned a degree in psychology from Ottawa University, and a PhD in student personnel administration from Columbia University. After serving as dean of girls at a high school in California, Stratton moved in 1933 to Purdue University in Indiana as associate professor of psychology (she became full professor in 1940) and dean of women, with responsibility for protecting and disciplining the women undergraduates.

As dean of women, Stratton pioneered many programs to increase the number of women who attended college and specifically the number of women who majored in the sciences. Purdue's enrollment soared from 600 to 1,400 female students. She established a career center for women graduates, and under her direction the first three dormitories for women were built. With her student personnel colleague, Helen B. Schleman, she co-authored a how-to social guide in 1940 entitled Your Best Foot Forward. Stratton established a national training school for fraternity and sorority housemothers, which nationalized the Purdue model of coeducation.

Stratton had long urged her undergraduate women to volunteer for civic duties, so when her nation called she served on the Army Board to select officers for the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC, renamed WAC in July 1943). She later took a leave of absence from Purdue to join the first class of women officers for the Navy, trained at Smith College in Massachusetts. These women reservists were nicknamed the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service). Stratton served at the WAVES radio training school at the University of Wisconsin.

Congress and the top brass military responded to public pressure by demanding the finest possible role models as senior officers for women reservists. The Army and Marine Corps selected civic leaders from high society and business; the Navy selected Mildred McAfee, president of one of the seven sister colleges. The Coast Guard operated as a unit of the Treasury Department in peacetime and as a unit of the Navy Department in wartime. When Congress in November 1942 established the Coast Guard Women's Reserves Corps, the Coast Guard looked to the WAVES for leadership. As a highly visible dean of women at a major state university, Stratton was a strong choice. She could reassure parents that their daughters would not only demonstrate their patriotism, but also learn skills to make them better housewives, and would be well taken care of while on duty. Stratton understood the problems and needs of college-age women, having worked in bureaucracies designed to accommodate and model impressionable young women. She was also well connected with other women educators who could help in their recruiting efforts.

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