Research Paper Title

An Assessment of Options for Increasing Gender Integration in Air Force Basic Military Training.

Abstract

Currently, men and women in U.S. Air Force (USAF) Basic Military Training (BMT) sleep in gender-segregated flights; some training is gender-segregated, and some is gender-integrated.

The USAF is currently reevaluating the degree of gender integrated training (GIT) in BMT and asked the RAND Corporation to conduct an assessment of ways to increase GIT in BMT. This study consisted of five tasks:

1. Reviewing the historical rationale for the degree of GIT in BMT and associated training outcomes.
2. Comparing USAF BMT with that of sister services.
3. Developing a range of options to incrementally and fully gender integrate USAF BMT.
4. Providing a comparative analysis of selected alternatives for gender-integrated BMT, including a cost analysis of the alternatives.
5. Developing an implementation monitoring framework and documenting findings and recommendations.

This report documents the findings from this study. It identifies five options for increasing GIT in BMT and assesses each option against a range of criteria, including:

• The degree to which GIT reflects working and housing conditions in the operational USAF.
• The degree of integration across flights and trainees.
• The impact on BMT training.
• The impact on current military training instructor models.
• The impact on BMT scheduling.
• The impact on BMT facilities.
• The impact on BMT information technology systems.
• The implementation timeline.
• The associated costs.

The report also identifies specific strategies to foster GIT implementation and presents a framework for monitoring GIT implementation over time.

The research reported here was commissioned by the commander of Second Air Force and was conducted within the Manpower, Personnel, and Training Programme of RAND Project AIR FORCE.

You can read the full report here: An Assessment of Options for Increasing Gender Integration in Air Force Basic Military Training (Schaefer et al., 2018).

Reference

Schaefer, A.G., Jones, D.D., Naber, A.M., Goughnour, T. & Lim, N. (2018) An Assessment of Options for Increasing Gender Integration in Air Force Basic Military Training. Santa Monica, California: RAND Corporation.