NEW YORK — Forty years after military service academies opened their doors to women, the Coast Guard Academy marked the milestone at a ceremony Monday as it welcomes a class with a record 38 percent of female cadets.

The enrollment rate for women has not been matched at the Naval Academy, the Military Academy at West Point, or the Air Force Academy, though each has seen an increase in female enrollment at a time when gender barriers have been falling across the armed services.

One graduate who was among the first women to enroll at the Coast Guard Academy in 1976 said her cadet years were the start of a career in which she regularly was the first or among the first women every step of the way.

‘‘It was hard, but it’s supposed to be hard,’’ Michele Fitzpatrick said. ‘‘We all just had to do the best we could and help each other get through the process.’’

The academies, which were required to admit women under a law signed by President Gerald Ford, provide a cost-free education, and upon graduation students are commissioned as junior officers with requirements to serve a minimum number of years.

Most academies say jumps in female enrollment reflect growing demand and not any special recruiting efforts.

But at West Point, where women account for 22 percent of the incoming class of 2020, marketing initiatives have helped boost female enrollment that remained around 15 to 17 percent until two years ago.

With women accounting for 17 or 18 percent of the Army officer corps, the academy wants to graduate women at or above that level, according to Colonel Deborah McDonald, the academy’s director of admissions.

Female enrollment at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., has risen steadily from 24 percent for the Class of 2016 to an anticipated 28 percent for the Class of 2020. At the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, a slow and steady increase has brought female enrollment to around 22 percent.

Associated Press