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The Largest Differences Between Male and Female Officers' Career Progression Occurred in the Probabilities of Being Retained as an O3, Being Promoted to O4, and Being Retained as an O5

• The observed differences in job and individual characteristics between male and female officers explain some but not all of the differences in the likelihood of reaching retention and promotion milestones.
• Among the differences in observed characteristics, family factors — specifically, marital status and age and presence of dependents — are consistently important. Women's lower likelihood of being in a tactical occupation, lower levels of deployment experience, and increased likelihood to have entered in a recent cohort were also notable contributors to gender differences in the career pipeline.
• The observed differences in career progression between male and female officers are also partly explained by differences in the association between a given characteristic and the likelihood of achieving a given career milestone.
• Several factors contributed to the portion of the gender gap attributable to differences in the association between characteristics and the likelihood of achieving a given career milestone, though no single factor was the primary contribution. That said, male and female officers with the same family status, in terms of marital status and age and presence of children, had different likelihoods of reaching several career milestones.
• Overall, marital status and dependent status were generally major contributors to gender differences in officer career progression.
• Among married officers, being a dual-military spouse appeared to have had little or no role in contributing to gender differences in career progression.
• Entry year also contributed to the gender gap in career progression because female officers were less likely to be represented in earlier cohorts, and the association between entry year and retention and promotion differed between male and female officers in a way that led to lower retention and promotion rates for female officers.