On Predicting Success in Training for Men and Women: Examples From Marine Corps Clerical Specialties

Abstract

The presence of differences between prediction systems for men and women is investigated through a detailed study of clerical occupational specialties in the U.S. Marine Corps. When various measures of ability were used to predict success of recruits in training, sizeable differences in regression equations were found between men and women. The study showed that selected deletion of extraneous Armed Services Vocational Applitude Battery (ASVAB) variables maintained overall predictive efficiency but did not entirely remove the differences between subgroup regressions. When the attainment of a high-school diploma was considered, however, subgroup differences between predicted scores were substantially reduced. Implications of these empirical results for the general problem of military personnel selection are discussed.