Marines look to sports teams for female recruits

Marine recruiters are turning to girls high school sports teams to find candidates who may be able to meet the Corps’ rigorous physical standards, including for the front-line combat jobs now open to women. [...] on the heels of the Pentagon decision to allow women who qualify to serve in combat jobs, thousands of new infantry, armor and other front-line posts are now open. According to Kennedy, the Marines, for the first time, are mailing recruiting literature to thousands of high school girls. [...] updated advertising will show active-duty female Marines doing their jobs on the battlefield. In those sessions, he said, he is working to debunk misconceptions about women in the Marine Corps, including worries about sexual harassment and sexual assault, limits on career options, lack of stability and difficulties having a family life. “We got to talk to them, got to show them there are plenty of female married officers and enlisted, that it’s not a good ol‘ boys club anymore when you talk about the career issues,” Kennedy said.