Chapter 4 - 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 51 percent of women officers had a spouse. Furthermore, whereas male officers were approximately as likely as 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.

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 nearly 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 4.11. FY 2001 Married Active Component Officer Corps and Enlisted Personnel, by Gender (Percent)
Gender	Officers	Enlisted
Males	71.0	49.6
Females	50.7	40.1
Total	67.9	48.2
Also see Appendix Table B-33 (Marital Status by Service).

Table 4.12. FY 2001 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	54,547	39,674	72.7	2,498	6.3
Female	10,250	5,419	52.9	2,538	46.8
Total	64.797	45,093	69.6	5,036	11.2
NAVY
Male	44.036	28,371	64.4	443	1.6
Female	7,892	3,376	42.8	529	15.7
Total	51,928	31,747	61.1	972	3.1
MARINE CORPS
Male	15,301	10,569	69.1	383	3.6
Female	859	350	40.8	241	68.9
Total	16,160	10,919	67.6	624	5.7
AIR FORCE
Male	56,211	42,138	75.0	2,483	5.9
Female	11,827	6,498	54.9	2,517	38.7
Total	68,038	48,636	71.5	5,000	10.3
DoD
Male	170,095	120,752	71.0	5,807	4.8
Female	30,828	15,643	50.7	5,825	37.2
Total	200,923	136,395	67.9	11,632	8.5
* There are some differences between the number of males and females reporting dual-service marriages.

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