DOD Service Academies

A GAO survey found widespread sexual harassment at the nation's military academies, with between 93 and 97 percent of female students reporting some form of sexual harassment in 1991. The most common forms of harassment were derogatory personal comments and suggestions that standards had been lowered for women. GAO found a strong link between harassment and stress. The academies generally have complied with the minimum requirements the Defense Department has set for programs to eliminate sexual harassment. Inspectors General have yet, however, to expressly review sexual harassment prevention and education at the academies. Moreover, none of the academies has developed usable data to assess whether their sexual harassment eradication programs are working. In reviewing the efforts of other organizations, GAO noted several approaches to preventing sexual harassment that may prove effective at the academies. GAO summarized this report in testimony before Congress; see: DOD Service Academies: Further Efforts Needed to Eradicate Sexual Harassment, by Mark E. Gebicke, Director of Military Operations and Capabilities Issues, before the Subcommittee on Force Requirements and Personnel, Senate Committee on Armed Services. GAO/T-NSIAD-94-111, Feb. 3, 1994 (12 pages).

GAO found that: (1) the academies have not met the Department of Defense's (DOD) goal of providing a sexual harassment-free environment; (2) one-half to three-quarters of the academy women surveyed have experienced at least one form of harassment at least twice a month; (3) the majority of academy men surveyed have never experienced any form of harassment; (4) academy staff and faculty do not perceive sexual harassment as a problem; (5) 95 percent of the academy women surveyed experienced at least one form of sexual harassment during academic year 1991, but only 26 cases were formally reported; (6) academy students have informal and formal procedures for reporting harassment incidents and perceive favorable and unfavorable consequences of reporting harassment; (7) students experiencing a high degree of sexual harassment also have higher stress levels and a lesser desire to pursue a military career; (8) the academies have generally complied with the DOD requirements for sexual harassment eradication programs, but their inspector general reviews have failed to emphasize sexual harassment prevention and education; (9) none of the academies have developed data to assess the effectiveness of their sexual harassment eradication programs and two of the academies have not conducted routine systematic program evaluations; and (10) there are several sexual harassment eradication programs at other institutions that could be effective at the academies.

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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