Gender Issues

GAO identified two major areas where studies indicate that servicemen and servicewomen perceive inequities: career opportunities and physical fitness and body fat standards. Some perceptions of inequality in career opportunities involve local assignment policies and practices established by unit commanders. Some women have raised concerns about being assigned to clerical and administrative jobs instead of positions requiring the technical skills in which they were trained. Some women also believe that they are being denied opportunities to serve in positions that are legally open to them because of perceived unjustified prerequisite requirements for a certain kind of experience, such as being in the infantry, that is closed to women. Researchers also found perceptions among some men and women that DOD's policy restricting women from occupations and units involved in direct ground combat affects their opportunities for promotions and career advancement. There is also a widespread perception that the existence of lower physical fitness standards for women amounts to a "double standard." However, the physical fitness program is actually intended only to maintain the general fitness and health of military members and fitness testing is not aimed at assessing the ability to perform specific missions or military jobs. Consequently, DOD officials and experts agree that it is appropriate to adjust the standards for physiological differences among servicemembers by age and gender. Many military women have also raised concerns about the fairness of the service's body fat standards. For a more detailed discussion of this issue, refer to GAO/NSIAD-99-9.

GAO noted that: (1) some perceptions of inequality in the area of career opportunities involve various local assignment policies and practices established by unit commanders; (2) some women have raised concerns about being assigned to clerical and administrative positions instead of positions requiring the technical skills in which they were trained; (3) some women believe that they are being denied opportunities to serve in positions that are legally open to them because of perceived unjustified prerequisite requirements for a certain kind of experience that is closed to women; (4) however, no existing studies show the extent to which such practices take place or are inequitable; (5) researchers have found perceptions among some men and women that the Department of Defense's (DOD) policy restricting women from occupations and units involved in direct ground combat affects their opportunities for promotions and career advancement; (6) no study was found that specifically addressed whether the ground combat exclusion policy has an inequitable impact on the career opportunities of men and women; (7) consequently, GAO examined the data submitted by the services as part of their annual equal opportunity assessments, and its analysis showed that the military selected men and women for promotion at basically similar rates over 80 percent of the time and selected men and women for key assignments and professional military education at similar rates approximately half of the time; (8) in those cases where the selection rates differed, no clear pattern of a systematic advantage to either gender emerged; (9) a RAND study stated that many servicemembers believe that fitness standards are a measure of one's ability to perform in a combat environment, and that lower fitness standards for women amounts to a double standard; (10) however, the physical fitness program is intended only to maintain the general fitness and health of military members and fitness testing is not aimed at assessing the capability to perform specific missions or military jobs; (11) DOD officials and experts agree that it is appropriate to adjust the standards for physiological differences among servicemembers by age and gender; and (12) many military women have also expressed concerns about the fairness of the services' body fat standards.

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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