Title 10, Armed ForcesRelease 119-110

§8431 Recruit Basic Training: Separate Housing for Male and Female Recruits

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

Last updated Sep 22, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary of 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 with separate entrances. Each separated area must be watched by at least one trained, authorized staff member. If an installation cannot meet those standards by October 1, 2001, the Secretary must put men in male-only barracks and women in female-only barracks from that date. Basic training means the initial entry training for new Navy and Marine Corps recruits.

Full Legal Text

Title 10, §8431

Armed Forces, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Physically Separate Housing.—
(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)Alternative Separate Housing.—
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)Construction Planning.—
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)Basic Training Defined.—
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 10, Armed Forces

Last Updated

Sep 22, 2026

Release point: 119-110