We asked 1,000 Marines how they feel about women's skirts. Here's what they said

High-waisted pencil skirts, tapered below the thigh, ranked most popular in an informal and unscientific survey of more than 1,100 Marine Corps Times readers who were asked for feedback on the service's effort to update women's service and dress uniforms.

The survey, which generated 1,122 votes over two weeks, was conducted online after Marine Corps headquarters announced its own survey on March 28. Specifically, officials want to know whether Marines prefer an A-line, straight, or pencil-style skirt. The service's uniform board also is examining whether to relocate the skirts' zippers from the back to the side, and whether to move the ID-card pocket from inside the garment to to the outside.

Nearly half of those who responded to Marine Corps Times' reader survey said they prefer pencil skirts. About one-in-four wants to keep the A-line skirts female Marines wear now. Fewer than one-in-five likes the straight skirts.

A smaller but not insignificant number of respondents — 101, or nine percent — said skirts should be replaced with trousers. Many called such garments “outdated.” And while some respondents bemoaned any further uniform changes, most opposed to updating the skirt said that doing so contradicts the effort, pushed by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, to create unisex uniforms.
The Marine Corps’ official survey had 498 participants as of April 13, according to Barb Hamby, a spokeswoman for Marine Corps Systems Command at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia. Of those, 304 had completed the dress skirt survey while 194 had completed the service skirt survey. Officials won't have a response breakdown until the survey concludes May 27, Hamby said.

The official survey is online and requires a common access card to complete.

Additionally, Marines can take the survey in person — and see uniform prototypes — during a roadshow going on throughout May. Stops will include:


•Camp Pendleton, California: May 3
•Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California: May 5
•Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia: May 10
•Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina: May 26
•Camp Lejeune, North Carolina: May 24
Last summer, Mabus said his goal is a collection of uniforms that “don’t divide us as male or female, but rather unite us as sailors or Marines.”

Female Marines switched to a universal cover for their dress blue uniforms last year, and the new female dress blue coat was adopted in January after more than two years of research and testing.

Women won’t see those coats for two to three years, officials said. Final tweaks must be made, then contracting and production timelines must be determined.
As part of Mabus' initiative, the Navy has taken a similar approach to unisex uniforms.

Female recruits on April 4 became the first to be issue “Dixie cups” in place of bucket covers. All other women have until Oct. 31 get theirs.

A new women's dress blue uniform, which sailors call “crackerjacks,” will be issued at boot camp beginning Oct. 1 and become mandatory by Jan. 1, 2020. Female officers and chief petty officers also saw updates to the Navy's service dress white uniforms that now have the same high collar common to men's uniforms, but they lack chest pockets and have smaller buttons.

Marine Corps Times' skirt survey results


1.Pencil | 550 votes | 49%
2.A-line | 271 votes | 24%
3.Straight | 200 votes | 18%
4.Trousers | 101 votes | 9%

Notes: This unscientific survey was conducted online between March 28 and April 13 using free tools provided by Polldaddy.com. It was served to readers who visited Marine Corps Times' initial report on the service's plans to modify women's skits. In all, 1,122 respondents completed the survey. That sample is not a perfect representation of the Marine Corps as no metric was used to identify men from women or active-duty personnel from veterans, retirees or civilians. Statistical margins of error commonly reported in opinion polls that use random sampling can't be calculated for this survey.