The University of Pittsburgh released a 738-page report funded by the Marine Corps calling for marines to no longer address drill instructors with “ma’am” or “sir,” as those are gendered terms. Marines are to refer to instructors using “ranks or rolls, followed by their last name,” according to the report. Gendered language “prime recruits to think about or visually search for a drill instructor’s gender first, before their rank or role,” said the report.
From National File:
Col. Howard Hall, chief of staff for Marine Corps Training and Education Command, told the Marine Corps Times that if changes were to be implemented, they would be slow coming. “It’s not something we would change overnight. We’ve got a history of ‘sir, ma’am, sir, ma’am.’ If we change something at the root level, ho do we make the corresponding change at the Fleet Marine Force. So it’s not ours to implement alone,” Col. Hall said. ... The study was part of a $2 million contract between the USMC and the Neuromuscular Research Laboratory and Warrior Human Performance Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh, of which co-principal investigator, Col. Bradley Nindl (USAR), is the director.
