Study Attrition Motivations Among Cadets at the Royal Military Academy: A Quantitative Content Analysis Through a Gender Lens
摘要
Study attritionAttrition is a costly problem for militaryMilitary academies, especially the attritionAttrition of womenWomen, who remain underrepresented in militariesMilitary. This chapter investigates the changing attrition motivationsAttrition motivation of cadetsCadets at the Royal MilitaryMilitary Academy (RMA) in Belgium over multiple academic years through a genderGender lens. The method is a quantitative content analysis of exit interviews (N = 290) with all cadetsCadets leaving the RMA between 2013 and 2019. The findings reveal that military cultureMilitary culture constitutes a key attrition motivationAttrition motivation, one that becomes increasingly salient in later academic years. Moreover, preliminary evidence suggests that men are more likely than womenWomen to indicate military cultureMilitary culture as an attrition motivationAttrition motivation. Study-related issues provide another reason for cadetCadets attritionAttrition, though as much for womenWomen as for men. Finally, physical and psychological problems and discrimination are less common attrition motivationsAttrition motivation; nevertheless, these constitute “gendered” incentives to drop out, disproportionally affecting womenWomen. This chapter adds to the literature on attritionAttrition within Western armed forcesArmed forces by highlighting differential cadetCadets attrition motivationsAttrition motivation by academic year through a genderGender lens.