Recruiting female cadets

[That Anonymous Guy]

My squadron has 1 female cadet on the roster and she very rarely participates. Any ideas on how to get more female cadets?

[Extremepredjudice]

All female schools?
JROTC females?

[titanII]

I think this is more of an organizational problem than a squadron-level problem. As of now, the program doesn't really appeal to most females in that age group. Maybe that's just saying something about society itself, and not even CAP.
I guess all of this is a very long-winded way of saying I don't know.

[Thrashed]

We had none, now we have 7. I don't know why.

[ironputts]

Most of our females joined because older siblings had. Currently we have four females out of twenty five cadets in the squadron. Three are related to each other and the last one had two other siblings with our squadron a few years back. It is a tough sell as mentioned above but once they join they are dedicated to the program in my experience. I find working with the parents a key ingredient in getting the cadets motivated and dedicated.

[spaatzmom]

Ask them.  Many of the female cadets I have talked to since 1999, have said they would have joined much earlier than they did if they had been broached and asked.  They said that most of the boys were too shy/ embarrassed to talk about CAP with them.

[Nearly Dark Side]

CAP for girls is something of a passing fad. We had only one female cadet and she often came. Now she never comes and i can't get a hold of her. We technically have two new female cadets but they never come. I find that female cadets often require more involvement or activities in order too become really devoted to CAP.

[Woodsy]

I've always been surprised at how many female cadets my squadron has.  Not sure of the exact numbers, but I think there's 8 or 10 out of about 30 active cadets.  And I will say that all of them are excellent, high speed cadets when compared to the average male cadet.  They promote more often and seem more committed.  Several of them will be Spaatz cadets, that I am sure of.  A couple already have their Mitchell.

[Extremepredjudice]

We have 6 or 7 in our squadron. Probably only 5 are active.

[Nathan]

This is an issue for all squadrons. It's not difficult to maintain a female cadet presence once you have it, but getting females to join an all-male squadron isn't easy. Snickering aside, how many of you would ACTUALLY join an all-female squadron? It's just a little intimidating, and gives the impression that if there aren't already female members, then there must be nothing offered for female members.

If you already have one female cadet, then your best bet is to encourage her to reach out to her friends and attend recruiting activities. If female prospective members see another female already in uniform and participating, it will make it much easier for her to join up without feeling like an outsider.

For squadrons with no female cadets, I always found success in recruiting two sisters or female friends at the same time. Once that foothold is established, then keeping a constant female presence isn't too much of a problem, especially if the female cadets reach a position of leadership.

[Spartan]

Let's start with recruiting.  How are you recruiting people?  Do you have one recruiting presentation or do you have a flexible presentation that you can adjust to different interests.  Where are you recruiting?  What is your biggest source of new members for your squadron?  Are you recruiting at male dominated events only?  Have you considered ensuring that any recruiting presentation and material shows a successful female member?

You mentioned that your one female cadet rarely attends.  Have you or your chain of command asked her what her interests are, and illustrated how CAP can help her meet her interests?  This does take a little bit of knowledge about the Cadet Program and ensuring that the local level can meet that interest.  Are your other members having a waning interest in participating?  If so, it is not an isolated issue and you should talk with them about why they are losing interest.  What kind of issues are keeping this female cadet from attending?  Does she have a reliable ride to and from?  Is she overwhelmed with school?  Was she passed over for an activity, promotion, position or training without communicating the reason to her?  Good communication is key on this one.  Think about what activities are available, and what activities fit what she is interested in.  Remember, CAP's Cadet Program is a good program, but it is not for everyone.

As stated by Nathan, it may be intimidating for adolescent females to join an organization that is dominated by adolescent males.  One female cadet may have issues with being the only girl.  Nathan has a good point; encourage her to reach out to her friends.  Also to members of her religious group, class, etc.  Give her responsibility and the authority to meet the requirements of that responsibility (empower her).  Something small like mentoring a new cadet in the great start program, especially if that new cadet is female, would be a great place to start.

[cnarf77]

CAP for girls is something of a passing fad.

This comment blew my mind. I suggest you take the EOC sharpish.

As others have said a lot of girls become a cadet because their friends have (the interest was possibly always there, they just didn't want to go by themselves). I joined because my best friend had joined (and she joined after her cousin joined). My friend attended for 6 months, I was a cadet for 5 years.

[Flying Pig]

Sounds like a job for the new CAP Diversity Czar

[CAPC/officer125]

CAP for girls is something of a passing fad.

This comment blew my mind. I suggest you take the EOC sharpish.

As others have said a lot of girls become a cadet because their friends have (the interest was possibly always there, they just didn't want to go by themselves). I joined because my best friend had joined (and she joined after her cousin joined). My friend attended for 6 months, I was a cadet for 5 years.

I am a cadet of 6 1/2 years, love it to death and am currently studying to retake my Spaatz. I have seen girls come and go in waves, but I do see the pattern of joining with/after family members or friends. I only joined because my mom was, but now I am more active than she is. When I joined I was the first my squadron had seen in a while but soon after we were at about 25% of the cadet population. Now I am the only female cadet in my squadron (not hard to be with only 3-4 cadets in my squadron [now in a different squadron then originally joined])

[a2capt]

We had usually 2 or 3, but something happened in the past couple months. One or two more came, and like a magnet, they could have their own flight, staff included now, in numbers.

Not complaining.

I think they also bring their friends, too.

[AFCadet2011]

I think this is kind of interesting because in our squadron most of the cadets are female, including myself, and we only have one male cadet officer on staff. Elsewhere in CAP, though, I've seen the opposite. At Encampments and other activities, it's mostly guys. I'm not sure why our squadron is different.

[Aim for the Sky!]

I'm sure this has everything to do with what Nathan said:

This is an issue for all squadrons. It's not difficult to maintain a female cadet presence once you have it, but getting females to join an all-male squadron isn't easy. Snickering aside, how many of you would ACTUALLY join an all-female squadron? It's just a little intimidating, and gives the impression that if there aren't already female members, then there must be nothing offered for female members.

If you already have one female cadet, then your best bet is to encourage her to reach out to her friends and attend recruiting activities. If female prospective members see another female already in uniform and participating, it will make it much easier for her to join up without feeling like an outsider.

For squadrons with no female cadets, I always found success in recruiting two sisters or female friends at the same time. Once that foothold is established, then keeping a constant female presence isn't too much of a problem, especially if the female cadets reach a position of leadership.

My squadron has around 50 cadets, but only about 5 (that's 1/10th for all you mathmeticians) are females and only about 3 of those show up regularly (out of about 35 active cadets), and I am in complete agreement with Nathan. It's the only explanation that works considering what AFCadet2011 said about her squadron:

I think this is kind of interesting because in our squadron most of the cadets are female, including myself, and we only have one male cadet officer on staff. Elsewhere in CAP, though, I've seen the opposite. At Encampments and other activities, it's mostly guys. I'm not sure why our squadron is different.

The reason I believe AFCadets2011's squadron has so many females is the same reason most squadrons consist mainly of male cadets.

[krnlpanick]

We have 4 active female cadets in our squadron and 2 potential recruits right now - our C/1SG is a female and our color guard is 2 female and 2 male cadets. I think the key is getting any females you do have to invite her friends to come with her.

Also worth noting - our squadron commander is female and we have 4 SM officers that are male and 2 that are female.

Having female and male cadets and SM's at recruiting events is probably a good way to work on that as well. The cadets are your best recruiting goal and alot of the male cadets may or may not feel comfortable trying to recruit females - they may be more concerned about looking and sounding cool to impress the girls.

[spacecommand]

My unit has many female members, our last three cadet commanders have been female.

As mentioned by another poster, I think it's easier if you already have a few female members in the unit who are active, who can recruit others to join.  Also many of them recruit their friends, sisters, cousins etc.  It becomes a little harder if you have little or no active female members to help you go out and recruit. 

One thing I try to do at recruiting events is to put on emphasis to possible female recruits that this is not just a program for males and that many females are successful in CAP (mention General Courter as well).