Hidden in Plain Sight: The WAVES who helped with the war and why Dayton mattered

The WAVES - Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service - emerged from military necessity in 1942 and evolved into a transformative force within the U.S. Navy. This talk explores how women were recruited and trained for roles ranging from administrative and technical work to the classified intelligence and cryptanalysis that shaped Allied operations. Discover why Dayton, Ohio became a crucial node in this larger story, and how six hundred women performed irreplaceable work while operating under layers of official secrecy. You'll gain insight into the scale and significance of women's wartime service, the psychological weight of silence, and what it means to be vital to the war effort while remaining officially unseen.
About the presenter: Davies is a researcher and writer based in the Dayton area, specializing in women whose wartime service proved essential yet remains largely absent from popular history. Her research focuses on the WAVES and the broader intelligence and manufacturing infrastructure that powered American cryptanalysis during World War II - the visible and invisible labor that made technological breakthroughs possible.