3 weeks Ago
By Ella Madden I’m a 19-year-old student at the University of Colorado Boulder, and this summer I’ll attend Officer Candidate School (OCS) in Quantico, Virginia. It will be my first major step toward becoming a commissioned officer in the U.S.
Marine Corps. Within Boulder’s group of over twenty men preparing for OCS, I am the lone woman. Several women have joined us.
None have stayed. Since entering the program last August, I’ve heard more than once that I probably don’t have what it takes. That I won’t make it.
That women don’t last. Those comments aren’t always said directly, but they’re there, in the way people size you up, in the jokes, in the stories about “the girls who quit.” The unspoken expectation is that you have to prove yourself in ways men never do.
OCS is already an uphill battle for women. The attrition rate hovers around 50%, compared to a significantly lower rate for men. And this summer, I’ll be going through the first full OCS cycle under a Department of Defense led by Pete Hegseth — a man whose record reflects a pattern of disregarding the service and dignity of women, and whose tenure has been defined by politicized decisions and instability at the top.
It’s hard not to wonder what that might mean for me and other women candidates. Will we be given a fair shot? Or will there be even more pressure to weed us out, reinforcing the idea that women are a liability, not an asset? When Admiral Lisa Franchetti was quietly removed as Chief of Naval Operations, the first woman in U.S.
history to hold that role, I felt that deeply. No explanation was offered. No wrongdoing was cited.
The message in her quiet removal was unmistakable: if you’re perceived as a DEI hire, your place in leadership will always be questioned. And then came the Signal group chat debacle. Secretary Hegseth shared operational details about a strike in Yemen — including aircraft, timing and targets — in a private Signal chat that accidentally included a journalist.
It was a serious breach of operational security, and it could have put American lives at risk. Any junior officer who made the same mistake would likely be removed from command on the spot . More recently, Vice President JD Vance visited Marine Corps Base Quantico and declared, “No more quotas, no more ridiculous mumbo jumbo, no more diversity trainings .
” Women are already drastically underrepresented in the Marine Corps (just under 6% of the force) and comments like these undermine efforts to recruit and retain them as unnecessary or unserious. When inclusion is openly mocked, it becomes easier to dismiss women as “diversity picks.” What does it say when military leaders are removed without cause, when security breaches go unpunished and when inclusion is mocked as “mumbo jumbo”? What does it say to many young women like me who want nothing more than to serve with honor? And yet, I’m still going.
I’m still training. I’m still preparing to possibly someday earn the title of Marine officer. Because I believe in what this institution could be.
I believe in the men and women who courageously serve. I believe in the idea that strength and honor aren’t contradictory to inclusion, and that the military is strongest when it reflects the nation it defends. But belief alone isn’t enough.
The people at the top must lead by example. They must be held to the same standards as those of us just entering the system. If the military wants to recruit and retain women who are capable and willing to serve, it must do more than tolerate their presence.
It must value their contributions and actively encourage more to join. Diversity isn’t a distraction for readiness; it’s one of our greatest strengths. OCS is the hardest thing I will ever do.
I don’t expect special treatment. I expect to be pushed to the edge of what I can endure. I welcome that.
But what I want in return is a fair shot. A fighting chance to become the kind of officer I believe the Marine Corps deserves. Ella Madden lives in Boulder.
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