Sexual Harassment and Assault in Government Agencies

With nearly 900,000 federal civilian employees around the world, DOD has responsibilities for preventing and responding to sexual harassment and assault within its workforce. Chapter 1 examines the extent to which DOD has visibility over such reported incidents and has developed and implemented policies and procedures to respond to and resolve these incidents. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has policies to prevent and address sexual harassment in the workplace, but some aspects of the policies and of the complaint processes may hinder those efforts. Chapters 2 and 3 address the extent to which VA has policies to prevent and address sexual harassment, how available data inform VA about sexual harassment, and the extent to which VA provides training to employees on preventing and addressing sexual harassment. The Department of the Interior has a sexual harassment problem. For decades women and men in national parks, refuges, and other public lands and offices have not been given the protections they need to do their work free from harm as reported in chapter 4. The Smithsonian Institution (Smithsonian) is the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex, with 19 museums and the National Zoo. An allegation of sexual harassment between two Smithsonian affiliated persons was made public and is discussed in chapter 5. Chapters 6-8 look at how sexual harassment and assault has affected NOAA employees, and how NOAA is trying to address the issue.