Just 16 percent of criminal investigators at four of the nation's premiere law enforcement agencies are women — and the ones who have landed those jobs are rarely promoted, a Department of Justice watchdog report found.
In his report Tuesday, Inspector General Michael Horowitz said women tended to work in administrative or supporting jobs at the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Marshals Service, according to The Washington Times.
For example, women were 84 percent of the workforce in human resources jobs, 78 percent of financial positions, and 53 percent of intelligence analyst posts, the Times reported.
But only one in 10 deputy marshals and one in five FBI special agents are women. During the inspector general's study, the number of women who headed field offices dropped from seven in 2013 to just one in 2016.
"We found that between FY 2011 and FY 2016 women held few headquarters executive leadership positions and those positions were usually leading administrative or support units rather than operational units," Horowitz said, per the Times.
Women did not fare well at winning promotions either; men at the ATF made up 52 percent of one of the agency's service levels, but got 68 percent of the next-tier promotions, the report found.
Kathy Spillar of the National Center for Women in Policing told the Times that Attorney General Jeff Sessions will need to put pressure on each agency's director to get any meaningful changes.
"The inspector general is going to need the backing of the DOJ and leadership at the agencies," she said. "But they are going to get pushback from men big time."
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