Workplace sexual harassment is illegal. But how prevalent is it? And how costly are legal fees, lost productivity, and other consequences? We found few reliable nationwide estimates across workplaces. Experts say recurring national surveys would help answer these questions. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission collects data on sexual harassment claims but can't fully analyze the problem. Sp...

The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 requires Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which issue mortgage-backed securities, to ensure diversity in their workforce and include diverse businesses in their business activities. From 2011-2019, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac slightly increased the number of women and minorities on their boards of directors and in senior management and recruited diverse work...

The U.S. Agency for International Development has tried to increase staff diversity. We reviewed how its workforce changed over 2002–2018. Overall, the proportion of racial or ethnic minorities in USAID’s full-time, permanent, career workforce rose from 33 to 37%, but proportions of some groups fell. Also, racial or ethnic minorities in the Civil Service were 31 to 41% less likely to be promo...

The State Department has expressed a commitment to building a workforce that reflects the diverse composition of the United States. We testified on State’s progress. Though State's workforce has grown more diverse, racial or ethnic minorities are still underrepresented, especially in the senior ranks. Racial or ethnic minorities in State’s Civil Service were 4% to 29% less likely to be promo...

We reviewed active duty female servicemember retention and promotion in FY 2004-2018. The proportion of women in the military went up from 15.1% to 16.5% Attrition rates for female enlisted and commissioned officers were higher than for males, but this gap has narrowed Women were 28% more likely to leave the service than men Promotion rates for enlisted were slightly lower for women than men,...

The State Department has expressed a commitment to building a workforce that reflects the diverse composition of the United States. Though State's workforce has grown more diverse, racial or ethnic minorities are still underrepresented, particularly in the senior ranks. Racial or ethnic minorities in State’s Civil Service were 4% to 29% less likely to be promoted than their white coworkers wit...

We previously reported on diversity in board directors at Federal Home Loan Banks. Now we’re looking at their efforts to diversify their workforces and companies they do business with—such as targeted recruiting in colleges and professional organizations to build a pipeline of diverse employees. In 2011–2017: the share of women in senior management at these banks increased; minority repres...

To prevent unlawful discrimination, federal agencies are to identify barriers to equal opportunity in employment and address weaknesses they find in their equal opportunity efforts. Our review of the Department of Homeland Security found it identified barriers and had plans to address them. For example, it investigated a higher-than-expected departure rate by white females from DHS. It found poss...

Many organizations have recognized the importance of recruiting/retaining women and minorities in key positions to improve performance and better meet customer needs. Our prior work has found that the number of women and minorities on boards has increased, but that their representation still lagged behind that of other groups. We testified about strategies to increase board diversity—such as ma...

We assessed whether there are racial or gender disparities in the military justice system. Among other things, we found Blacks, Hispanics, and males were more likely than Whites or females to be tried in general and special courts-martial in all military services Race was not a statistically significant factor in the likelihood of conviction in general and special courts-martial The services d...