Perceptions of equal opportunity among women and minority army personnel

Equal opportunity (EO) is recognized by the Department of Defense (DoD) as being crucial to maintaining a high stare of military readiness. In the las t two and a half decades, a number of EO initiatives have been employed by the DoD and each of the military services in an effort to promote fair trea tment of minorities and women. Social science literature suggests that the integration of racial minorities, particularly African American males, is a military success story. Some social scientists argue convincingly that the military has far surpassed civilian organizations in integrating African A mericans. While the U.S. military has had a long history of addressing racial issues, problems concerning gender have only recently been addressed on a large sc ale. Some scholars assert that the military is the last male bastion in the United States. It lags behind the civilian sector in integrating women. This study examines the perceptions of active-duty men and women in the U.S . Army to determine whether minority men are more satisfied with the equal opportunity climate than women and whether minority women are less satisfie d with the equal opportunity climate than non-minority (White) women. The p urpose of this study is twofold: One objective is to examine differences wi thin the gender category, i.e., African American, Hispanic, and White women The other objective is to explore differences across gender. Degree of sat isfaction is measured by responses to items on the Military Equal Opportuni ty Climate Survey (MEOCS). The data were stratified by rank level, officer and enlisted and a General Linear Model (GLM) was performed with race, gend er, and the interaction of race and gender as independent variables. In the final analysis, the data were stratified by paygrade, and a GLM was perfor med on each part separately. Among the findings, race is a more powerful pr edictor of the attitudes of active-duty men and women toward the EO climate in their units than either gender or the interaction of race and gender. W hile gender is significant in most of the statistical models, and the inter action of gender and race is sometimes significant, these variables explain less than one percent of the variance. Although African American men are g enerally more satisfied with the EO climate than African American women, th ey are less satisfied than White and in some cases, Hispanic men and women.