#Metoonatsec Open Letter On Sexual Harassment in National Security
#Metoonatsec Open Letter On Sexual Harassment in National Security
#Metoonatsec Open Letter On Sexual Harassment in National Security
We, the women of the National Security community, come from all walks of life and all corners
of this great nation. Those of us who have worked for the United States have sworn an oath to
support and defend the Constitution. Diplomats and civil servants, defense civilians, members of
the military, development workers, and the locally employed staff workers and contractors who
support them brave challenging, at times life-threatening, conditions. Our commitment leads
many of us to spend extended time away from our families and loved ones in war-zones and
hostile locations in service of our nation.
We, too, are survivors of sexual harassment, assault, and abuse or know others who are.
The pipeline is not the central problem in much of the national security community. Talented
women enter most of our agencies in equal numbers as their male counterparts, though this is
less true of the armed forces. At the State Department, female foreign service officers enter at
equal rates to their male colleagues. Yet, with each subsequent promotion, the numbers of
foreign service women decline, especially at senior levels. Women now comprise 15% of all
active duty militarya historic high, but the women who are already serving in senior ranks are
being promoted far less frequently than their peers.
Many women are held back or driven from this field by men who use their power to assault at
one end of the spectrum and perpetuate-sometimes unconsciously-environments that silence,
demean, belittle or neglect women at the other. Assault is the progression of the same behaviors
that permit us to be denigrated, interrupted, shut out, and shut up. These behaviors incubate a
permissive environment where sexual harassment and assault take hold.
The institutions to which we belong or have served all have sexual harassment policies in place.
Yet, these policies are weak, under enforced, and can favor perpetrators. The existence of
policies, even good ones, is not enough.
We, the undersigned, call on the national security community, including the Department of
Defense, the Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the
Department of Homeland Security, the intelligence community, armed forces, National Security
Council, think tanks, universities, and contractors who support them to take a comprehensive set
of actions to reduce the incidence of sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace. These
include:
Clear leadership from the very top that these behaviors are unacceptable;
Creating multiple, clear, private channels to report abuse without fear of retribution;
External, independent mechanisms to collect data on claims and publish them
anonymously;
Mandatory, regular training for all employees;
Mandatory exit interviews for all women leaving Federal service.
Finally, this community must also address the serious gender imbalances in senior leadership
positions because male-dominated teams have been found to be more prone to abuses and more
diverse teams are consistently linked to better outcomes. And we want to see leaders and
managers across the national security community held accountable for creating, nurturing, and
enforcing a workplace culture that respects and includes women as equal peers and colleagues.
We are proud to have served our nation and to have safeguarded its ideals, and we are proud to
have worked alongside the talented and dedicated men and women who make up America's
national security workforce. Imagine what more we could achieve together if we took steps to
ensure women could work free from fear and confident that their gender will not affect their
opportunities.
How will you protect, empower, and defend the women who serve our nation?
Sincerely,
Affiliations are for identification purposes only and do not represent organizational views or
positions of the U.S. Government