Women in Special Operations: Improvements to Policy, Data, and Assessments Needed to Better Understand and Address Career Barriers : Government Accountability Office (GAO) , December 15 , 2022
Women in Special Operations: Improvements to Policy, Data, and Assessments Needed to Better Understand and Address Career Barriers : Government Accountability Office (GAO) , December 15 , 2022
From the report: “The Department of Defense’s (DOD) policies to prevent and respond to incidents of gender discrimination, sexual harassment, and sexual assault are applicable department-wide. But some of the implementing service policies related to the environments in which U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) operates are inconsistent with DOD policy. The military services, not SOCOM, are responsible for administering service-specific policies on these types of incidents; however, SOCOM service members conduct missions in a joint (i.e., multiservice) environment. Some of the services’ policies related to incidents of gender discrimination and sexual harassment occurring in joint environments are not aligned with DOD policies. DOD policies state that, in joint environments, discrimination and harassment complaints are to be processed through the complainant’s service. In contrast, Army, Marine Corps, and Air Force policies all assign this responsibility to the alleged offender’s service. Without the military services revising their policies for joint environments to help ensure alignment with DOD policies, such cases may be processed inconsistently across DOD.”
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