But the bigger question is why are men deciding not to stay?
“My son, who wanted to be a Marine his entire youth, left after 5 years, disgusted with the new ‘woke’ Marines.”
“I know a model Marine, 6’1, 230lbs of monster muscle did not re-up because of wokeness.”
“Left the Marine Corps because of the woke stuff.”
“I was a U.S. Marine, and I can tell you that a lot of guys decided not to re-enlist because of this woke foolishness.”
More comments at the end of the article
By Micaela Burrow | The Daily Caller News Foundation
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.
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.
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.
Listen to the People
More quotes from our “What Military Service Members, Veterans and Parents Are Saying: Evidence that the CRT/DEI/Woke agenda being pushed in the military is harming morale, recruitment and retention” (pdf)
“We know 2 brothers who are young, patriotic, dedicated Marines who joined the corps carrying on a family legacy of service. They both fulfilled their first term of enlistment and then got out because of the indoctrination and woke ideology.”
“I have a family member who was going to career in the Marines. As soon as his hitch was up he left. Refused to reenlist. Couldn’t blame him.”
“I just retired from the Marine Corps after 20 years last year and it’s getting out of hand. You’ve got leadership that doesn’t care about anything except these woke policies. I know lots of Marines that are getting out because they are tired of it, as well as Marines, who wanted to do more than 20 years but they are tired of the woke culture.”
“Another Marine veteran commenting here – I have friends nearing retirement in multiple branches and they send me screen shots of “programs” and “initiatives” that are nothing but complete wokeness. It’s an absolutely disgusting place our military is in and we need to clean house. Start with commander in chief and work all the way down through every complacent officer there is. And to be very clear, every single officer is complicit right now. The good ones have all gotten kicked out (mostly for Covid reasons). Our military is weak. It can be fixed. But it’s gonna be painful.”
“As a Marine I can personally tell you that the USMC is going woke and it started in the early 2000s, then got much worse under Obama..now the Obama days are coming back for another round.”
”A friend of mine’s Grandson just got out of USMC Boot Camp. He went to the rifle range twice, bivouac once. diversity training the rest of the time. Sad to say that the boy feels very disappointed after his Grandfather told him what the Marines USED TO BE before he enlisted! My Buddy, his Grandpa, had no idea it had gotten that bad, me either.”
“As someone who served in the Marine Corps from 2013-2018, I have three words for those considering joining: DO NOT JOIN.”
“20 years service with the US Marine Corps. I do not recognize the service which I once had proudly served only 12 years ago. My son joined the Marines; he is getting out because in his words “I am not some germ in a political petri dish.”
“This is part of why I got out of the Marines in 2016. Shit was starting to be forced top down HARD. The feminist agenda was front and center.”
“My son left the Marines right before they mandated the clot-shot. He could tell it was about to happen and it was time for him to re-enlist. He had passed the tests to be part of the Recon and he was extremely dedicated. The wokeness was also a factor in his decision.”
Marine: “Perhaps it’s not the criticism that is affecting the recruiting and retention but the actual example of wokeness that current and former soldiers pass to their family and friends causing you to lose support in one of the primary sources for manpower?”
“I got out in 2017 of the marine corps because politics were swallowing us alive and were out of control. You couldn’t yell at anyone, you couldn’t punish anyone, you couldn’t do what marines do and even joke around anymore. I had guys in my unit that were scared and against guns!!! Why the ffff would you join the Marine corps while being scared of guns…The crazy part, everyone was forced to oblige and give him a pass exemption for rifle quals…It was becoming So administratively political, everyone’s feelings were top priority…It was always feelings above mission and training. Everyone became so pathetic, soft and weak in ever seemed to be such a short time frame. All I can say as sad I was to get out, easily the best decision I ever made looking back…and I was in for 8 years.”
“When the U.S. military (even the Marines) has “diversity officers”, aka commissars, you know all you need to know about why recruiting is horrible.”
“Back when I was in the Navy, personnel weren’t coddled as they are now. My son just completed 20 years in the Marines, retiring as a staff sgt and he said woke policies were beginning to affect that branch as well when he retired a couple years back. When the Pentagon says woke hasn’t invaded the military, it’s lying. I’d advise anyone considering the military, don’t! It’s not what it used to be.”
“I am a Gen Xer. In 2010 the Commandant of the Marine Corps did a base to base speaking tour. The SgtMaj of the Marine Corps made it clear that the USMC was going to Mirror society. December of 2010. Don’t ask, Don’t tell me as lifted. Though we all had our opinions. We all follow the Orders of the POTUS. I left 3 years later. The change may have been good or bad, There are rules and regs while in uniform and Public Displays of affection. All that went to the wayside, leader were afraid to correct because of the possible repercussions that followed for good Marines. I retired 3 years later, when my son was a senior, I made it clear that it was his decision to serve, but the military have become a social experiment. He chose not to Join and I could not be happier. I loved the USMC, change is inevitable, but there must be good order and discipline.”
“My sister in law was a marine corps officer until a couple of months ago. Refused the shot but was so completely disgusted by the pathetic leadership that she was happy for the opportunity to get out.”
“I am also a USMC veteran, and my son, despite my best efforts to discourage him from doing so, became a Marine and is about 3 months away from completing his 4 year enlistment. He can’t wait to be out, and they didn’t even offer him any kind of reenlistment incentives at all, even though he is a solid NCO with exemplary service.”
“We are a Marine Corps family. It hurts me to say that I would urge a young man to stay very far from any military service.”
“I am third generation military, and my beloved Marine Corps has been destroyed. I do NOT want my sons serving, they both dropped out of scouting when they were required to obtain woke merit badges just prior to Eagle Scout rank. Liberals destroy every think they touch.”
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