1985 brings a great point. This has been one that my Facebook has been flooded with this week as the majority of my female friends from USNA and in the USMC are married to fellow service members. Retention of female officers and enlisted is very difficult. In part this is because balancing two military careers is very difficult. I think adding one more challenge to a tough life already, would not help the DoD's cause to try to expand retention of female mid and senior level enlisted and officers in the military. This has been an issue the DoD (honestly I think its all industries to some extent) has really focused on and are generally consuming topics as women's military conferences. DoD has tried adding in programs to allow 2-3 years of time off and return to service, modifying maternity policies, etc. Retention rates still have not improved much. Be interesting to see where this goes in the future. I would expect this is also a challenge for same sex dual military couples also, will be an interesting trend to see retention rates in those relationships over the years.
hornetguy, thanks for the stats. Only question the one line....
Are you assuming that the female would not be the military member to get the BAH or am I misreading that? In many cases my female active duty friends are actually senior by 1 rank in some relationships, that is why I asked. In that case, she would should be the military member to get the BAH. Don't think that is what you were stating, just clarifying.
hornetguy, thanks for the stats. Only question the one line....
So nearly half of married military women are in dual-military. This BAH policy would really hurt military women and create a wage gap where there was none.
Are you assuming that the female would not be the military member to get the BAH or am I misreading that? In many cases my female active duty friends are actually senior by 1 rank in some relationships, that is why I asked. In that case, she would should be the military member to get the BAH. Don't think that is what you were stating, just clarifying.