Male and female Marine platoons to integrate at recruit training for the first time

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“On January 5, 2019, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion aboard Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island will start their training cycle with one female platoon and five male platoons,” the Marine Corps said in a statement.

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A Marine official said that the change was not permanent, but that the Corps “will certainly look at how the company performs in this model as we continually evaluate how we make Marines.”

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The Corps decided to “incorporate the 50 female recruits into the historically all-male battalion because the recruiting classes are typically much smaller in the winter months,” according to the Marine Corps statement. Female drill instructors will still lead the female recruits. Female recruits will live in the barracks with their male counterparts, but in different squad bays.

“This training cycle of about 300 recruits will provide Recruit Depot staff a unique opportunity to assess outcomes, achievements and challenges in training, logistics and resource impacts of this company training model,” the Marine Corps said.

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Vocal women’s advocacy groups have long contended that separating males and females in recruit training builds resentment and a false perception that female Marines have it easier in training.

That issue, they argue, can result in male Marines disrespecting female superiors and leaders. “What truly disadvantages women is training that separates them from their fellow Marines from the outset,” retired Navy Capt. Lory Manning, director of government operations at the Service Women’s Action Network, previously told Marine Corps Times. “The Marines should fully integrate enlisted boot camp from the first day so all new Marines soak up the Marine Corps ethos together and learn, together, that the unit bond includes both men and women."

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