The performance and retention of female Navy officers with a military spouse

Abstract

The Military Leadership Diversity Commission (MLDC) in 2011 emphasized the importance of gender equality and diversity in the U.S. armed forces, placing gender integration and inclusion on the Navy's priority list. The retention rates of female Navy officers tend to be lower than the rates of their male counterparts. Recent studies focused on better understanding the factors that affect female retention to improve gender integration and inclusion in the Navy. With the number of dual-military couples on the rise, and with women more likely than men to be married to a service member, this study examines retention and performance of female Navy officers in a dual-military marriage. Using data on Navy officers commissioned between 1999 and 2003, results of a multivariate analysis indicate that women in a dual-military marriage tend to stay in the Navy at a lower rate than do women married to a civilian spouse. However, women in a dual-military marriage who stay beyond 10 years of service show higher performance than do their male counterparts. These findings suggest that the Navy needs to address work-life balance to increase retention rates of female Navy officers in a dual-military marriage, and subsequently benefit from their higher performance later.