Excerpts about women in the
American military
“Women in the United States
Military. Women make up about 20 percent of
today's military. Information and resources concerning women in the
United States military, both in the past and the present.”
Source
(Iraq and Afghanistan invasions)
“Since 1973, when
the male draft ended and the All Volunteer Force began, the
percentage of women among U.S. military personnel has increased
dramatically, from 1.6 percent in 1973, to
8.5 percent in 1980, to 10.8 percent in 1989.
Today, over 229,000 women serve
on active duty in the military services of the Department
of Defense (DOD): the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force. About
15 percent of these women are officers;
this is about the same percentage as that of military men overall. Although
officers account for a larger proportion of total personnel in some
of the services than in others, only in the Marine Corps are the women
noticeably less likely than the men to be officers (seven percent vs.
10 percent).
A substantial proportion of all
military women are minority women; in fact, minorities
account for a considerably larger percentage of military
women than of military men (38 percent vs. 28 percent).
Minority representation is larger among enlisted women
(41 percent) than among women officers (19 percent), but the disparity
is less than for men (minorities account for 31 percent of enlisted
men, 11 percent of male officers).
The military population is an educated
one; standards for women are generally higher
than those for men. Virtually all enlisted
women (99.8 percent) are high school diploma graduates.
While the comparable percentage for enlisted men is currently only slightly
lower (98 percent), enlisted women are noticeably more likely than enlisted
men to have attended college (27 percent vs. 21 percent).
Nearly all officers have at least a college
bachelor's degree, and an increasing number of women are graduates
of service academies; 1990 marked the 10th
year women have graduated from the military academies of the
Army, Navy and Air Force." Source
"Military 198,400—Total
number of active duty women in the military, as of Sept. 30,
2007. Of that total, 33,500 women were officers, and 164,900
were enlisted.
14 percent
Proportion of members of the armed forces who were women, as of Sept.
30, 2007. In 1950, women comprised less than 2 percent.
1.8 million
The number of military veterans who are women."
