The Marines Are Removing ‘Man’ From 19 Job Titles--Stirring Backlash in the Corp
The service will make the titles more gender-neutral as women's roles expand.
— -- The Marine Corps is planning to rename at least 19 of its job titles to be more gender-neutral as the military services open more combat positions to women, an official notice by Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus said. The changes have not been entirely welcome.
Most of the resistance to the changes come from other Marines, with some of the harshest commentary saying the changes are a result of an overreach on political correctness and moving away from Marine Corp traditions.
Some posted on Twitter about the updates:
The Marine Corps will make an announcement regarding the title changes as early as Friday, a Marine official confirmed to ABC News, adding that the name changes are just that since "it's the same jobs, same Marines.”
For 15 job titles, the word "man" will be replaced with "Marine." Some other changes will include the new title “antitank gunner” for the job called "antitank missile man," and "field artillery operations chief" instead of "field artillery operations man." The remaining changes will be associated with positions named with reconnaissance Marine -- formerly reconnaissance man.
Although these several jobs will have new titles, a few existing titles that contain the word "man" will remain intact, such as rifleman.
The current size of the Marine Corps is 186,500 and about 7.7 percent of the force is comprised of women. Historically, the Marines have the lowest percentage of women serving among the military services.