SES Gets More Diverse

The representation of women and minorities in the Senior Executive Service is increasing, but not across the board, GAO concludes in a new a report today. The report's key finding:

The representation of women and minorities in the SES and the SES developmental pool increased governmentwide from October 2000 through September 2007, but increases did not occur in all agencies. Over these 7 years, increases occurred in more than half of the 24 major executive branch agencies, but in both 2000 and 2007 the representation of women and minorities continued to vary significantly at those agencies. In 2003, we projected that increases would occur in the representation of women and minorities in the SES and SES developmental pool by 2007. These increases generally did occur.

GAO also looked at when executives are appointed to and retire from the SES. Its analysts found that SESers were 50, on average, when they entered the executive corps and 60 when they retired. Those averages didn't vary much by race, ethnicity, or gender. But women do tend to stay in the SES longer than men: 11.4 years vs. 8.8 years.