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Key Retention Factors for Female Air Force Officers

• Family and personal life were a prevalent theme across the focus groups with female Air Force officers. Comments included statements about children, pregnancy, spouses, dating, and other issues related to officers' personal lives.
• Female officers also discussed issues related to their Air Force careers that affect their retention decisions, focusing primarily on three areas: career path flexibility, ability to cross-train, and civilian opportunities.
• Several factors related to work environment influenced retention decisions, including the importance of leadership, female role models, mentoring, gender composition, sexual harassment and assault, and long work hours or shift work.
• Other key retention factors associated more broadly with an Air Force career included Air Force benefits, Permanent Change of Station, deployments, and force reduction.

Perceptions of Recently Established Air Force Programs and Policies

• Focus group discussions also sought to gauge female officers' opinions about two recently established Air Force programs and policies: the updated maternity leave policy, which extended maternity leave to 12 paid weeks and deferred fitness tests and deployments for one year after the birth of a child; and the Career Intermission Program (CIP), which allows for inactivation and transfer to the Individual Ready Reserve with partial pay for up to three years before returning to active duty.
• Participants said the new maternity leave policy is a step in the right direction to support women in the Air Force but were mixed on whether this new policy might influence female officers' decisions regarding retention.
• Understanding and awareness of the CIP varied. Most female officers were glad the CIP exists and thought that it could be beneficial — but most also believed it would have little effect on retention and were skeptical that it would not have negative career effects.

Women are underrepresented among the Air Force's senior leadership compared with their representation among the lower ranks. One factor contributing to this underrepresentation is that women tend to leave the active duty Air Force at higher rates than men. This report documents the results of a qualitative study designed to better understand the factors that female Air Force officers consider when deciding whether to remain in or separate from the active duty Air Force. The study conducted a total of 54 focus groups with 295 female Air Force officers in the spring of 2016 from across 12 different Air Force installations. The report describes the key retention factors identified through these focus groups and provides recommendations for improving Air Force policies and programs to help address potential barriers and improve female officer retention.

• Chapter One

  Introduction

• Chapter Two

  Focus Group Methodology

• Chapter Three

  Key Retention Factors for Female Air Force Officers

• Chapter Four

  Conclusion and Recommendations

• Appendix A

  Previous Research on Barriers to Female Officer Retention

• Appendix B

  Base Selection Methodology

• Appendix C

  Focus Group Protocols

• Appendix D

  Qualitative Coding Approach and Coding Guide for Female Air Force Officer Retention Focus Groups