The U.S.Air Force Is Working Harder to Retain Female Officers,and Here's How

摘要

Women are underrepre-sented among the Air Force's senior leadership,which could be robbing the service of the potential to improve innovation,agility,and performance.Air Force Chief of Staff Gen.David Goldfein has recognized the value of diversity,stating that”recruiting and retaining diverse airmen cultivates innovation.Like different aircraft and missions make up one Air Tasking Order,different people make the best teams when integrated purposefully together.”The Air Force has worked to address diversity in the service through a series of diversity and inclusion initiatives,and it continues to work to improve demographic representation within its ranks,including the representation of women.One factor contributing to this underrepresen-tation is that women tend to leave the active-duty Air Force at higher rates than men.RAND undertook research to better understand the factors that female Air Force officers consider when deciding whether to remain in the active-duty Air Force.The project team conducted focus groups with female officers in mid-2016 from multiple installations.