Women are choosing to re-up their Marine Corps contracts at significantly higher rates than men, according to data newly obtained from the service by Marine Corps Times.
The data provided to the Pentagon’s Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS) in December shows that women stay in the service longer than their male counterparts in most categories, including both enlisted and officers, by a wide margin, according to the Marine Corps Times. Although the Marine Corps’ overall enlisted retention rates are low, none of the remaining military services demonstrated the same pattern of significantly higher female retention.
In fiscal year 2023, which ended Sept. 30, first-time female Marines reenlisted at a rate of 35%, compared to only 28% of males, Marine Corps Times reported. For second-term enlisted Marines, the statistics showed that 43% of males reenlisted while 47% of females chose to stay in. Overall, the reenlistment rate for females in 2023 was 33% and 28% for males. (RELATED: Marine Corps To Deactivate Female-Only Unit Amid Pressure From Congress To Speed Up Gender Integration)
In 2022, the spread was 32% of first-term female Marines compared to 24% of first-term males and 46% of second-term female Marines compared to 41% of males, according to the outlet. The trend was reflected backwards through fiscal year 2019, where the data dropped off, and the gap does not appear to be narrowing.
Male Marine officers choose to stay in almost as often as female officers, but a gap remains going back five years, the data showed, according to Marine Corps Times. In 2023, 90% of female officers chose to stay in compared to 88% of male officers, down slightly from 92% of women and 90% of men in 2022.
The Marine Corps is working to prioritize older, more experienced Marines but still has comparatively low enlisted retention rates when taken alongside the other services. This is mostly due to demanding operational requirements.
However, it was still the only service to show a higher female retention rate. The Army, Navy and Air Force also provided their data on women in the services to the Pentagon in December. The Army did not provide data for officers, but overall 80.4% of women reenlisted compared to 77.1% of men in 2023.
Also in 2023, Air Force had the same enlisted retention rate for men and women at 88.68% while male officers stayed in at a rate of 90.71%, barely higher than female officers did, Marine Corps Times reported. For the Navy, 86.5% of enlisted men re-upped their contracts compared to 84.8% of enlisted women, with female officers choosing to stay in at a rate 0.4 percentage points higher than male officers.
United States Marine Corps (USMC) recruits from Lima Company, the first gender integrated training class in San Diego, march while covered in mud following an obstacle course during The Crucible on April 21, 2021 at Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, California. (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
A Marine spokesperson said internal polling doesn’t show major differences in the reasons men and women cite for leaving the service, according to Marine Corps Times.
“There have been studies on retention ― not specific to higher female retention ― in the past,” Maj. Danielle Phillips told the outlet. “One of our manpower modernization initiatives will allow us to catalogue and analyze historical manpower-related studies in the near future.”
“There’s very likely a self-selection bias that’s occurring,” Kyleanne Hunter, a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation and former Marine pilot, told Marine Corps Times. “Are the women who join women who would be more likely to stay in, because they’ve already had to go through higher barriers to entry?”
The Marine Corps did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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