Marine drill instructors may go gender neutral

An academic report recommends that the Marines drop gender-based identifying language for drill instructors in the Corps training programs.

Two years after the Corps originally commissioned the report from the University of Pittsburgh on efforts to integrate the service, the final product advocates following in the steps of other branches and dropping designations such as "sir" or "ma'am," and replacing them with the individual's rank and surname.

"Instead of saying 'ma'am' or 'sir,' recruits in these Services refer to their drill instructors using their ranks or roles followed by their last names. Gendered identifiers prime recruits to think about or visually search for a drill instructor's gender first, before their rank or role," it reads, according to the Marine Corps Times.

"Gender-neutral identifiers are an unambiguous, impartial way to circumvent these issues," it continued. "Employing gender-neutral identifiers eliminates the possibility of misgendering drill instructors, which can unintentionally offend or cause discord. By teaching recruits to use gender-neutral identifiers for their drill instructors, Services underscore the importance of respecting authoritative figures regardless of gender."

The report observed that male Marine recruits remained effectively the standard against which the Corps measures all its recruits. The Corps currently has the lowest percentage of female members among all the service branches.

Corps leaders, however, remain concerned about the logistics of implementing such changes. 

Marine Corps Training and Education Command chief of staff Col. Howard Hall told the outlet that such reforms would have to be adopted gradually and with the support of all components within the Corps. saying, "[a]ll of a sudden, we change something at recruit training, and recruits start coming in and using a different identifier. It’s not something we would change overnight."

"Again, we’ve got a history of 'sir, ma'am, sir, ma'am. If we change something at the root level, how do we make the corresponding change at the Fleet Marine Force? So it's not ours to implement alone," he said.

The Corps has not set a timeline for making any decisions based off of the report.