Early in 1943, a policy change was mooted to remove female officers from the technical musterings they had so far filled in the WAAAF, and substitute male officers in these roles.
In opposing this, Stevenson went around the new Air Member for Personnel, Air Commodore Frank Lukis, and wrote directly to the Deputy Chief of the Air Staff, Air Commodore John McCauley.
She told McCauley, "I contend that it is a waste of money and training to take women cipher officers, women from Signals (S4) and casualty ... when they have learnt their work and substitute these women by men who have to learn the job", and recommended that he direct the Air Member for Personnel to ensure that female officers continued to be employed in technical positions, and not simply for administration and welfare.
McCauley agreed with Stevenson but Lukis appealed to Air Vice Marshal George Jones, the Chief of the Air Staff.
Jones backed Lukis' authority, and the latter sent what Joyce Thomson described as a "stinging rebuke" to Stevenson, who was forced to apologise.
In any event, women officers continued to be employed in technical positions as the WAAAF expanded over the next two years, peaking in strength at 18,667 members in October 1944.
As of July that year, women comprised thirty-one per cent of Air Force ground staff and filled sixty-one trades, all previously occupied by men.
By the end of the war around 27,000 women had served in the WAAAF.

In a July 1945 performance assessment, Joe Hewitt, now an air commodore and the Air Member for Personnel, wrote that Stevenson had "displayed great keenness in the performance of her duties and considerable resourcefulness in the solution of difficult problems".
She continued to lead the WAAAF following the cessation of hostilities, retiring on medical grounds on 22 March 1946.
Suffering reduced muscle function in her left arm and pain on the left side of her face and neck, she was diagnosed with brachial neuritis, traced to typhus, tetanus and smallpox injections received the previous May in preparation for a proposed visit to Manila that never eventuated.
In her last annual address to the WAAAF as its Director, Stevenson encouraged its members to make use of their service experience when they returned to civilian life:
These are the things we shall miss—the comradeship, the knowledge of a common aim, the feeling that one is not alone—they all make life in the WAAAF very different from life in the outside world ... We must find a common aim—not of winning a war and working to free our prisoners of war—but winning something for our district from an unenlightened council or a disinterested public ...
To The Sydney Morning Herald, she contended:
Waaafs also succeeded in making a few old truisms into lies ... It can never be said again that women cannot keep secrets, for in the WAAAF they did confidential work and kept top secrets.
Nor can it be said that women cannot work and live together without squabbling or that women will not take orders from women.

Presented with a jewelled brooch as a farewell gift by her fellow officers, Stevenson asked that its value instead be put towards a scholarship for an ex-WAAAF member to study social work at the University of Sydney.
The WAAAF itself, the first and largest of Australia's wartime women's services, was disbanded on 30 September 1946.
It was succeeded in 1950 by a new organisation with a separate charter to the RAAF, the Women's Royal Australian Air Force (WRAAF).
WRAAF members achieved a pay scale equal to the male service in 1972, and five years later were integrated with the RAAF.
Early in 1943, a policy change was mooted to remove female officers from the technical musterings they had so far filled in the WAAAF, and substitute male officers in these roles. In opposing this, Stevenson went around the new Air Member for Personnel, Air Commodore Frank Lukis, and wrote directly to the Deputy Chief of the Air Staff, Air Commodore John McCauley. She told McCauley, "I contend that it is a waste of money and training to take women cipher officers, women from Signals (S4) and casualty ... when they have learnt their work and substitute these women by men who have to learn the job", and recommended that he direct the Air Member for Personnel to ensure that female officers continued to be employed in technical positions, and not simply for administration and welfare. McCauley agreed with Stevenson but Lukis appealed to Air Vice Marshal George Jones, the Chief of the Air Staff. Jones backed Lukis' authority, and the latter sent what Joyce Thomson described as a "stinging rebuke" to Stevenson, who was forced to apologise. In any event, women officers continued to be employed in technical positions as the WAAAF expanded over the next two years, peaking in strength at 18,667 members in October 1944. As of July that year, women comprised thirty-one per cent of Air Force ground staff and filled sixty-one trades, all previously occupied by men. By the end of the war around 27,000 women had served in the WAAAF.
In a July 1945 performance assessment, Joe Hewitt, now an air commodore and the Air Member for Personnel, wrote that Stevenson had "displayed great keenness in the performance of her duties and considerable resourcefulness in the solution of difficult problems". She continued to lead the WAAAF following the cessation of hostilities, retiring on medical grounds on 22 March 1946. Suffering reduced muscle function in her left arm and pain on the left side of her face and neck, she was diagnosed with brachial neuritis, traced to typhus, tetanus and smallpox injections received the previous May in preparation for a proposed visit to Manila that never eventuated. In her last annual address to the WAAAF as its Director, Stevenson encouraged its members to make use of their service experience when they returned to civilian life:
These are the things we shall miss—the comradeship, the knowledge of a common aim, the feeling that one is not alone—they all make life in the WAAAF very different from life in the outside world ... We must find a common aim—not of winning a war and working to free our prisoners of war—but winning something for our district from an unenlightened council or a disinterested public ...
To The Sydney Morning Herald, she contended:
Waaafs also succeeded in making a few old truisms into lies ... It can never be said again that women cannot keep secrets, for in the WAAAF they did confidential work and kept top secrets. Nor can it be said that women cannot work and live together without squabbling or that women will not take orders from women.
Presented with a jewelled brooch as a farewell gift by her fellow officers, Stevenson asked that its value instead be put towards a scholarship for an ex-WAAAF member to study social work at the University of Sydney. The WAAAF itself, the first and largest of Australia's wartime women's services, was disbanded on 30 September 1946. It was succeeded in 1950 by a new organisation with a separate charter to the RAAF, the Women's Royal Australian Air Force (WRAAF). WRAAF members achieved a pay scale equal to the male service in 1972, and five years later were integrated with the RAAF.
Clare Stevenson