Retention of Air Force Women Serving During Desert Shield and Desert Storm

The Gulf War stimulated the largest deployment of military women in US. history, raising many issues concerning the postwar readjustment of women as well as their willingness to continue in the military following wartime service. In this article, I identify and describe multiple factors that contribute most directly to women’s decision to leave or remain in military service. A stratified sample of 525 women participated in one telephone interview and two successive self-administered questionnaires 2 years following Desert Storm. The sampling frame was stratified on the following factors: component of the Air Force (active, guard, or reserve), deployment (in the theater or elsewhere), and parental status (parents or nonparents). A descriptive profile of leavers and stayers is provided. The greatest attrition occurred among women who gave birth to a child between the beginning of the war and time of the survey, those reporting greater financial strain, and those holding a more negative view of military service as a result of their Gulf War experience. Analyses of open-ended questions provided the most frequent and critical reasons given by women who left military service following Desert Storm. These findings strongly indicate that retention of women in the Air Force is related less to the inevitable need for deployment than to the addressable issues of family support and work environment.