At the suggestion of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower Anna Rosenberg, Marshall formed the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services in August 1951. Its first chair was Mary Pillsbury Lord, a civic activist who had been chair of the National Civilian Advisory Committee of the Women's Army Corps. Some of its original members included Oveta Culp Hobby, the first Women's Army Corps (WAC) director; Mildred McAfee Horton, former director of the WAVES; Ruth Streeter, former director of the Women Marines; actress Helen Hayes; Sarah G. Blanding, Vassar College president, engineer Lillian Gilbreth; and publisher Beatrice Gould. Meeting for three days at the Pentagon in September 1951, they heard presentations about recruiting and the possible need for a women's draft based on the failure of recruiting during World War II to meet the military services' requirements for women. The committee would help to develop policies and standards for women in the military—using them, expanding their opportunities, recruiting them, and training them. The committee ensured that military women would have representation at the Department of Defense.