Montgomery Marine Corps Recruiting Office Focuses On Getting More Female Applicants

by WAKA Action 8 News

Marine Corps officials say they are facing a shortage of female recruits. They say much of it has to do with the misconceptions of the Marine Corps. It’s why recruitment officers have come up with a plan to fix the problem.

Recruitment officials at the Montgomery Marine Corps recruitment office use this board to count how many people they’re recruiting and shipping to Parris Island a month. As you can see, they’re filling or getting close to quota for males, but they say they’re needing more females to apply.

Last month, the Marine Corps recruitment office in Montgomery was supposed to recruit four women. But the slots are empty.

So it’s a constant call after call to get more female applicants to diversify the Marine Corps population. Right now there are 188,000 officers — only 6 percent of them are female.

“One of the misconceptions is that women acan’t be marines or they can’t fill certain jobs within the marine corps. But really what we’re looking for is the female potential marines that are highly qualified physically and mentally,” Said Cpt. Bradford Parr, Operations Manager at the Montgomery Marine Corps recruitment office.

To do that, the Montgomery recruitment office is starting its project to have more recruitment events that attract women. Hoping to fill the void in these spaces with the Marine Corps’ Iron Goddess. Competition…

“We can as well be marines. This competition is going to be challenging both physically. We’re going to do cross fit exercises, there’s going to be burpees involved, there’s going to be anvil can lifts… it’s going to be based on the marine corps fitness test,” Said Sgt. Gracy Sepulveda.

An event that hopes to steer women towards what Marine Corps officers call the decision of a life-time. You can call this practice for the real fitness test.

“This event is to give awareness and make sure that you may not be interested and you may be interested, you just don’t know what it’s like,” Said Sgt. Jesse Cody, recruiter.
    
The Iron Goddess Competition is just one of many female-targeted events the Marine Corps is having in the coming months to increase the number of applicants.

The Iron Goddess competition will be held this Saturday 9:30 to 3 p.m. at the Crossfit 2L2Q off Highway 231. You must be at least 17 years old to participate. The event is free to enter.