"RAND National Defense Research Institute."

Includes bibliographical references (p. 51-52).

Introduction -- Overview of Data and Approach -- Results on Minority and Gender Differences in Career Progression -- Results on Female Officer Career Progression Differences in Restricted Occupations -- Summary and Conclusions – Appendix: Detailed Description of Data and Methods, and Regression Results.

Although military accessions of women and minorities have increased over time, the proportions of these groups in the senior officer corps remain relatively low. RAND research conducted in the late 1990s found that, on net, white and black women entering the officer ranks were less likely to achieve the field grade level (O4) than were white men, while black men had the same likelihood of achieving O4 as white men. This volume updates the earlier RAND study by tracking the promotion and retention of personnel who entered the officer ranks between 1971 and 2002 through the rank of O6, using data from January 1988 through September 2010. The newer data enable the researchers to investigate differences later in the career and to consider differences for Hispanic officers and other minorities. The authors discuss their findings in relation to those of the earlier study. This updated study also examines the career progression of women serving in military occupations that are partially closed to them—that is, occupations that are deemed open to women but that have some positions for which assignment of women is restricted. The authors find no statistically significant difference between the career progression of women in partially closed versus open occupations, relative to the differences among men serving in the same occupations.

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