Summary: The military selected men and women for promotion at similar rates more than 80 percent of the time and for professional education and key assignments about half of the time. However, an analysis of the data revealed a number of cases in which one gender was favored over the other for promotions, education, and assignments depending on the military service involved. The military, as a whole, selected men and women for promotion to the top three non-flag officer and enlisted grades at similar rates in about 82 percent of the promotion boards or examinations reviewed. Only the Army had more significant differences in favor of men. When the data for the four services were combined, the military selected men and women for professional military education opportunities at basically similar rates in about 46 percent of the board or decentralization selections; the remaining 54 percent of the selections slightly favored women. However, when the data were analyzed service by service, the Army and the Navy had more significant differences in favor of men, while the Marine Corps and the Air Force had higher numbers of significant differences in favor of women. For key assignment selections, the military as a whole selected men and women at similar rates in about 53 percent of the board or decentralized selections. For the remaining selections where significant differences existed in selection rates, 32 percent were in favor of men and 15 percent were in favor of women. The Air Force and the Navy had higher instances of significant differences in favor of men, while the Army had slightly more significant differences in favor of women.
