Report finds SES diversity on the rise

White men continue to dominate the highest levels of the civil service, but their numbers dropped in the 1990s while the number of women and minorities increased slightly, according to a new report from the General Accounting Office. The number of white males in the Senior Executive Service dropped from 84 percent to 69 percent in the 1990s, a circumstance likely due to retirements and increased recruitment of women and minorities, GAO said. Diversity in the federal workforce provides a wider variety of perspectives when crafting policy, making decisions and solving problems said GAO's report, "Senior Executive Service: Diversity Increased in the Past Decade" (GAO-01-377). To gauge the extent to which women and minorities were appointed as career senior executives, GAO studied the growth of women and minorities in the Senior Executive Service during the 1990s, and also compared representation of the two groups in the career service to minority representation in the national labor market. Governmentwide, the number of women and minorities in the career service increased from 1990 to 1999, but large differences still exist between the ratio of white women to minority women, the report found. In September 1990, the difference between career service white women and career service African American women (the largest minority among women) was 7 percent. By 1999, the difference had increased to 15 percent. But, the ratio of white men to African American men declined, with the latter group increasing slightly from 3.7 percent to 5.1 percent during the same decade. The number of male Hispanic, Asian and Native American senior executives all remained below 2 percent from 1990 through 1999. Each of the 24 largest federal agencies also saw growth among women during the 1990s. The State Department and the Federal Emergency Management Agency were the only agencies that did not see the number of minority career executives grow during that time frame. According to GAO, the percentage of minor senior executives grew the most at the Small Business Administration. GAO cautioned report readers from drawing too many conclusions from its results. The EEOC did not approve of GAO's methodology, and even GAO admitted that it wasn't perfect. "While our methodology is not perfect, it was the best we could devise considering the available data. Moreover, in this report, we caution the reader about drawing conclusions from the data presented," GAO said. The results of GAO's study fell below the expectations of Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., who requested the report along with Reps. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., and Elijah Cummings, D-Md. Davis is ranking member of the Government Reform Subcommittee on Civil Service and Agency Organization. "I would be surprised if, at the senior level, we saw the sort of numbers we wanted to see," Davis said. Towns agreed. "The slight increase identified by GAO in the reports is woefully inadequate and Rep. Towns plans to ask GAO to investigate how to address the continuing lack of diversity in the federal workforce," a Towns spokesman said. But, Senior Executives Association President Carol A. Bonosaro saw GAO's findings as a sign of progress. "I think there has been what certainly appears to be a substantial increase in minority representation and I think to have accomplished that during a period when the career [Senior Executive Service] was downsized by almost 20 percent is very significant," Bonosaro said. "There were fewer opportunities to enter the [Senior Executive Service], and I think we might just as easily have seen a lot less progress given those fewer number of slots available." According to OPM Acting Director Steven Cohen, while GAO's findings reflect some progress, further improvement will require sustained attention to employment practices that foster diversity. "OPM will continue to provide governmentwide leadership and policy direction in the selection, development and management of diverse, highly-qualified federal executives," Cohen said in a response to the report.