Chapter 4 - Active Component Officers/Marital Status

Marital Status

As indicated in Table 4.11, officers were more likely to be married than the enlisted personnel they lead. It is interesting to note that for officers as well as enlisted personnel, women on active duty were less likely than men to be married. In fact, while nearly three-quarters of male officers were married, only 53 percent of women officers had a spouse. Furthermore, whereas male officers were slightly more likely than their civilian counterparts (college graduates in the workforce 21 to 49 years of age) to be married, female officers were substantially less likely to be married. This suggests that women in the officer corps are more divergent from their civilian peers regarding family patterns.

Table 4.11. FY 2000 Married Active Component Officer Corps and Enlisted Personnel, by Gender (Percent)
Gender	Officers	Enlisted
Males	72.5	51.2
Females	52.5	41.0
Total	69.5	49.7
Also see Appendix Table B-33 (Marital Status by Service).

Though female officers are less likely to be married than male officers, among those who are married women are considerably more likely to be a partner in a dual-military marriage. As can be seen from Table 4.12, married female officers are approximately eight times more likely than married male officers to have a spouse in uniform. This trend is more than a curiosity, as dual-service marriages pose unique challenges to assignment and deployment, in addition to affecting Servicemembers satisfaction with military life.

Table 4.12. FY 2000 Active Component Officers Who Were Married, and in Dual-Service Marriages, by Gender and Service (Number and Percent)
Gender	End-Strength	Married		Married Who Were In Dual-Service Marriages
Gender	End-Strength	Number	Percent	Number*	Percent
ARMY
Male	55,355	40,592	73.3	2,541	6.3
Female	9,997	5,391	53.9	2,600	48.2
Total	65,352	45,983	70.4	5,141	11.2
NAVY
Male	43,804	29,373	67.1	473	1.6
Female	7,736	3,538	45.7	619	17.5
Total	51,540	32,911	63.9	1,092	3.3
MARINE CORPS
Male	15,196	10,534	69.3	361	3.4
Female	812	336	41.4	220	65.5
Total	16,008	10,870	67.9	581	5.3
AIR FORCE
Male	57,203	43,919	76.8	2,365	5.4
Female	11,819	6,673	56.5	2,488	37.3
Total	69,022	50,592	73.3	4,853	9.6
DoD
Male	171,558	124,418	72.5	5,740	4.6
Female	30,364	15,938	52.5	5,927	37.2
Total	201,922	140,356	69.5	11,667	8.3
* There are some differences between the number of males and females reporting dual-service marriages.

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