HISTORY 2011 Global War on Terror Through 2020

December 16, 2015

New Hairstyles

SSgt. Cherie Wright, Supply Chief with 2nd Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company, Camp Lejeune, N.C., shows off her hairstyle,  which was approved by the Marine Corps, includes the authorization of both twist and lock hairstyles.

December 16, 2015

January 5, 2017

First Female Marines at 1/8

Three enlisted female Marines with infantry jobs join an infantry at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina-based First Battalion, Eighth Marine Regiment.   

January 5, 2017

September 25, 2017

First Officer to Graduate Infantry Officer Course

First Lt. Marina A. Hierl participated in an exercise during the Infantry Officer Course at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, California.   

September 25, 2017

August 2020

Infantry Officers Course

 

The Corps released a Marine ­message encouraging company officers who were ­denied the opportunity to attend Infantry Officer Course simply because they were women to request a lateral move into the infantry field.

August 2020

December 2020

The Fewer, The Proudest

As of 2020, women make up 8.9% of total active duty Marines. These numbers give the Marine Corps the lowest ratio of women in all of the U.S military branches.    

December 2020

Pending

The women are now allowed to serve with to 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, where they will serve in the following infantry military occupational specialties: rifleman, machine gunner and mortar Marine. 

The battalion had a team of women leaders consisting of a logistics officer, motor transport officer and wire chief to support the female infantry Marines. 

The three of the infantry Marines graduated from the School of Infantry as part of the service's gender integration research.

In March, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter approved the Marine Corps' plan to allow women to join military occupational specialties that had been restricted to men only. Carter had refused an earlier request by the Corps to keep women out of combat jobs after the service's gender integration study found that mixed-gender teams did not perform as well as all-male teams and that female Marines were more likely to get injured. 

Pending

pending