Combating Inequality: Recruiting Practices and Demographic Diversity in the US Military

Abstract

The demographic composition of the US military does not mirror that of the general US population. Within the military itself, racial minorities are consistently overrepresented in the enlisted ranks but underrepresented in the officer corps. There is also an increasing concentration of families with multiple active duty service members. These deep-rooted inequalities impact soldiers, civilians, and the relationship between the two populations. This paper investigates the effects of recruiting practices on demographic equality in the Army and Navy. This is accomplished with a qualitative approach that utilizes demographic studies, military memoranda, and interviews with qualified military personnel. This paper finds that current recruiting practices exacerbate the overrepresentation of racial minorities within the enlisted ranks because of the focus on recruiting racial minorities upon graduation from high school. This tendency is facilitated by attractive fiscal incentives for enlistment and unequal geographic representation in JROTC programs nationwide. Demographically diverse recruiting practices for officers are complicated by narrow eligibility standards and service-connected nominations for service academies and ROTC programs. Furthermore, the Army’s recruiting model depends heavily on historically military-friendly geographies, as well as physical recruiting stations. This paper makes several recommendations to reconcile these inequalities. More consideration should be given to the composition of the recruiting force itself, given the underrepresentation of Hispanic recruiters in the Army. The Army’s initiative to recruit in urban centers should be reconfigured to focus on high-growth cities outside the South that have low military exposure, high levels of demographic diversity, and high-quality recruits. This shift in recruiting can be facilitated by a modernized recruiting model that encodes variables key to demographic diversity and more efficiently utilizes virtual recruiting stations.