Population Representation 2004 - Active Component Officers

ACTIVE COMPONENT OFFICERS

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.

Table 4.11. FY 2004 Married Active Component Officer Corps and Enlisted Personnel, by Gender (Percent)
Gender	Officers	Enlisted
Males	71.4	50.9
Females	50.9	43.0
Total	68.1	49.8
Also see Appendix Table B-32 (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 nearly seven 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 2004 Active Component Officers Who Were Married, and in Dual-Service Marriages, by Gender and Service (Number and Percent)
		Married		Married Who Were In Dual-Service Marriages
Gender	End-Strength	Number	Percent	Number*	Percent
ARMY
Male	57,208	39,806	69.6	2,468	6.2
Female	11,426	5,691	49.8	2,629	46.2
Total	68,634	45,497	66.3	5,097	11.2
NAVY
Male	44,677	31,203	69.8	1,112	3.6
Female	8,030	3,765	46.9	1,283	34.1
Total	52,707	34,968	66.3	2,395	6.8
MARINE CORPS
Male	15,778	11,173	70.8	450	4.0
Female	964	396	41.1	273	68.9
Total	16,742	11,569	69.1	723	6.2
AIR FORCE
Male	60,685	45,083	74.3	4,426	9.8
Female	13,619	7,482	54.9	3,500	46.8
Total	74,304	52,565	70.7	7,926	15.1
DoD
Male	178,348	127,265	71.4	8,456	6.6
Female	34,039	17,334	50.9	7,685	44.3
Total	212,387	144,599	68.1	16,141	11.2
* There are some differences between the number of males and females reporting dual-service marriages.

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