A study for Congress found that blacks in the military are less likely to gain promotion than their white counterparts, but it stopped short of blaming the problem on racism.
The study by the General Accounting Office found "statistically significant" evidence that blacks get promoted less often than would be expected based on their numbers in the armed services. Women appeared to be gaining proportionally more promotions than would be expected.The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, reached no conclusion as to why disparities in promotion rates turned up for blacks and other minorities and for women. It recommended the Defense Department improve its equal opportunity monitoring.
A Pentagon official responded that the recommended improvements are already being put into place.
"Our analysis showed some racial or gender disparities, although the number of disparities varied considerably . . . across the services, and by race and gender," GAO analyst Mark Gebicke wrote.
The report, covering the years 1989 through 1993, was requested by Rep. Ronald Dellums of California, the senior Democrat on the House National Security Com-mittee. Dellums, who is black, has long prodded the military on the issue of racial and gender discrimination.
Measuring promotion rates among women, American Indians, Asians, blacks and Hispanics compared with whites, the report found statistically significant instances of lower-than-expected promotion among blacks. Analysts measured actual promotions against what would be expected based on the proportion of blacks and other minorities to whites in each of the service branches.
At the E-7 level, the equivalent of an Army sergeant first class, blacks were promoted less often than expected in each of the five years examined in the Army, Marine Corps and Navy. In the case of the Navy, the difference was statistically significant in all but one year.
In all, the study compared promotion levels in each of the five years broken down by military service and six different ranks. The result was 116 separate measures. In 80 of those 116 measurements, blacks were less likely than expected to gain promotion, 31 of which were deemed statistically significant.
For women, 78 of the 116 measurements showed a greater-than-expected likelihood of promotion, although none was rated statistically significant.