Title 10Armed ForcesRelease 119-73

§8431 Recruit basic training: separate housing for male and female recruits

Title 10 › Subtitle Subtitle C— - Navy and Marine Corps › Part PART III— - EDUCATION AND TRAINING › Chapter CHAPTER 852— - TRAINING GENERALLY › § 8431

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Navy must keep male and female recruits in separate, secure housing during basic training. Sleeping and bathroom areas for men and women must be divided by permanent walls and have separate entrances. Each such area must be watched by at least one person who is authorized and trained. If an installation cannot meet these rules by October 1, 2001, then from that date men must be in male-only barracks and women in female-only barracks. The Navy must plan new recruit housing so it can keep men and women separated securely. Basic training means the Navy and Marine Corps’ initial entry training programs for new recruits.

Full Legal Text

Title 10, §8431

Armed Forces — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)(1)The Secretary of the Navy shall provide for housing male recruits and female recruits separately and securely from each other during basic training.
(2)To meet the requirements of paragraph (1), the sleeping areas and latrine areas provided for male recruits shall be physically separated from the sleeping areas and latrine areas provided for female recruits by permanent walls, and the areas for male recruits and the areas for female recruits shall have separate entrances.
(3)The Secretary shall ensure that, when a recruit is in an area referred to in paragraph (2), the area is supervised by one or more persons who are authorized and trained to supervise the area.
(b)If male recruits and female recruits cannot be housed as provided under subsection (a) by October 1, 2001, at a particular installation, the Secretary of the Navy shall require (on and after that date) that male recruits in basic training at such installation be housed in barracks or other troop housing facilities that are only for males and that female recruits in basic training at such installation be housed in barracks or other troop housing facilities that are only for females.
(c)In planning for the construction of housing to be used for housing recruits during basic training, the Secretary of the Navy shall ensure that the housing is to be constructed in a manner that facilitates the housing of male recruits and female recruits separately and securely from each other.
(d)In this section, the term “basic training” means the initial entry training programs of the Navy and Marine Corps that constitute the basic training of new recruits.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

2018—Pub. L. 115–232 renumbered section 6931 of this title as this section.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

of 2018 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 115–232 effective Feb. 1, 2019, with provision for the coordination of

Amendments

and special rule for certain redesignations, see section 800 of Pub. L. 115–232, set out as a note preceding section 3001 of this title. Implementation Pub. L. 105–261, div. A, title V, § 521(b)(3), Oct. 17, 1998, 112 Stat. 2011, provided that: “The Secretary of the Navy shall implement section 6931 [now 8431] of title 10, United States Code, as added by paragraph (1), as rapidly as feasible and shall ensure that the provisions of that section are applied to all recruit basic training classes beginning not later than the first such class that enters basic training on or after April 15, 1999.”

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

10 U.S.C. § 8431

Title 10Armed Forces

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73