An Army Inexperienced Beret, assigned to twentieth Special Forces Group, Alabama Nationwide Guard, shows a unit patch and tabs whereas being rigged up right into a MC-6 parachute at Northeast Alabama Regional Airport in 2019. (Ausitn Berner/Army)
WASHINGTON – There are a number of doable the reason why lower than 10% of the army’s particular operations forces are ladies – together with discrimination, sexual assault and conflicting army insurance policies, a authorities watchdog concluded in a research launched this week.
In 2021, fewer than one in 10 particular operations forces troops have been ladies, based on Particular Operations Command, or SOCOM, the army’s unified command that oversees the particular operations parts of the Army, Air Drive, Navy and Marine Corps.
“Ladies make up lower than 10% of SOCOM service members, in contrast with about 19% DOD-wide,” based on the report. “SOCOM leaders have acknowledged current problems with gender discrimination, sexual harassment and assault, and profession impediments, and the necessity to do extra.”
The disproportionately low proportion of ladies serving in particular operations forces sparked the Authorities Accountability Workplace research, which concluded a number of components are in all probability accountable – together with gender bias, sexual assault and harassment and conflicting insurance policies throughout the Protection Division.
One other doable purpose for fewer ladies serving in particular operations roles is SOCOM isn’t getting vital knowledge that might assist stop and reply to the boundaries confronted by ladies, based on the research.
“SOCOM has restricted entry to well timed, correct, and full knowledge on its personnel, together with incidents of gender discrimination, sexual harassment, and sexual assault,” the 169-page GAO research states. “Whereas SOCOM has taken some steps to handle its knowledge entry limitations, the [Pentagon] has not established a collaborative course of to make sure SOCOM has entry. With out such a course of to facilitate SOCOM’s entry to wanted knowledge, SOCOM management won’t be positioned to establish tendencies or tackle pressing considerations.”
The report recognized a number of different probably boundaries to ladies serving within the particular forces. They embody demanding bodily requirements, being pregnant and youngster care points, social help and isolation and lowered entry to ladies’s well being care.
Additional, the GAO discovered conflicting insurance policies throughout the army. It stated a few of the branches have insurance policies inside particular operations environments that don’t align with the Pentagon insurance policies.
For instance, underneath Protection Division coverage, complaints about gender discrimination or sexual assault in joint environments should be dealt with by the accuser’s service department. The Army, Marines and Air Drive have insurance policies, nevertheless, that state such complaints should be dealt with by the offender’s department.
“With out the army companies revising their insurance policies … to assist guarantee alignment with DOD insurance policies, such instances might be processed inconsistently throughout [the department],” the research states.
The GAO report makes a number of department-wide and branch-specific suggestions:
Army, Marine Corps and Air Drive insurance policies for discrimination and harassment in joint environments must be revised to align with the Pentagon’s coverage.
The Pentagon ought to create a collaborative course of to share knowledge that might assist SOCOM stop and reply to boundaries for ladies in particular operations.
The Pentagon ought to make clear which workplace will create required annual assessments on the combination of ladies into beforehand closed positions, equivalent to particular operations forces.
The Pentagon ought to create a constant course of to be used of these annual assessments – together with a plan of motion to handle boundaries to ladies in particular operations forces.
The Pentagon ought to do a complete evaluation about boundaries for ladies serving in particular operations forces.
After the great evaluation, the Pentagon ought to develop a plan to handle boundaries or profession impediments for ladies in particular operations forces – and it ought to embody clear targets, aims, metrics and milestones.
The GAO stated the research is predicated on coverage critiques, interviews with varied Pentagon and SOCOM officers, conversations with officers at 5 particular operations installations and interviews with 51 ladies who serve or previously served in particular operations forces.
The Pentagon responded by agreeing with all eight of the GAO’s suggestions – however stated it thought the research was too restricted in its scope as a result of it centered solely on ladies who skilled discrimination or harassment or assault within the particular operations forces and interviewed solely ladies.
“Lowering threat components for gender-based discrimination and violence can’t be achieved with out fostering protecting components within the group,” Erin Logan, the Pentagon’s deputy assistant secretary of protection for particular operations coverage and packages, wrote in a letter to the GAO.
Logan famous a current research by the Army Particular Operations Command that discovered 62% of ladies needed to remain within the Army’s particular operations forces — and almost three-quarters stated they’d help their daughters becoming a member of the Army’s particular operations forces.
