Women in the Military

Air Force Revises Job Availability but Entry Screening Needs Review Gao ID: NSIAD-91-199 August 30, 1991

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO assessed whether the Air Force enlisted accession program was gender-neutral.

GAO found that: (1) the Air Force replaced separate male and female job lists with a single job list that can be accessed by both male and female applicants seeking job commitments from the Air Force; (2) the Air Force has retained the capability to apply gender limits to respond to changes in the impact of the combat exclusion law without having to redesign the computer-based job list system; (3) there was no written policy guidance requiring specific authorization from Air Force Headquarters before gender-based job limits could be established; (4) the Air Force designated the Policy Division of the Air Force Directorate of Personnel as the decisionmaking authority for the activation of gender-based job limits; and (5) tests used by the Air Force to screen applicants measure applicants' prior knowledge in subject areas that have a strong gender association eliminate female applicants at a higher rate than male applicants.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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