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Levels of Racial/Ethnic and Gender Diversity Among Air Force Officers

• The representation of minorities and women in Air Force officer ranks has increased significantly over the past two decades but is still below these groups' representation in the general population, at all ranks.
• As rank increases, the proportion of minority and female officers decreases.

Factors That Explain Differences in the Representation of Racial/Ethnic Minorities and Women Among Air Force Officers: Eligibility, Accessions, Retention, and Promotion

• Air Force accessions are less diverse than the general population in terms of race/ethnicity mainly because some minority groups meet Air Force eligibility requirements at lower rates. For example, African Americans and Hispanics are much less likely than whites to have a college degree.
• Women have a higher rate of eligibility than men, in large part because women are more likely to have college degrees. However, their representation is lower than their eligibility rate would suggest. This is likely explained by young men having a generally much higher interest in serving in the armed forces.
• The retention of women is significantly lower than that of men, and this finding is not clearly attributable to women's decisions about having children and other family characteristics, as it is in the civilian workforce.
• There is no evidence to suggest that the Air Force promotion system is unfair, in that there are few large and unexplained racial/ethnic or gender differences in the probability of promotion. However, characteristics associated with certain groups of recruits, such as African Americans' tendency to have lower Air Force Academy order of merit scores, have a negative effect on promotion that builds over time. Minorities and women are more likely than whites and men to be in career fields that have lower promotion rates to senior ranks.