Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS) 1951-2014: 63 Years of DACOWITS
Abstract
The Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS), hereafter referred to as the Committee or DACOWITS, was established in 1951 with a mandate to provide the Secretary of Defense (SECDEF) with independent advice and recommendations on matters and policies relating to servicewomen in the Armed Forces of the United States. Individual members of the Committee are appointed by the SECDEF and serve in a voluntary capacity for one- to four-year terms. It has been the Committee s approach since 2010, and again in 2014, to divide work into two areas of focus: Wellness and Assignments. The Committee selected specific topics for study under each area of focus, and gathered both primary and secondary sources of information, including briefings from DoD and Service-level military representatives and subject matter experts (SMEs); data and other information collected from focus groups and interactions with Service members during installation visits; and literature reviews. These sources of information formed the basis for the Committee s recommendations and reasoning. The Committee voted on recommendations during its September 2014 business meeting and approved this annual report at its December 2014 business meeting. The Committee examined two Wellness topics in 2014: the prevention of sexual harassment and sexual assault, and reproductive health care. In addition, the Committee continued to monitor the DoD s responses to previous recommendations on these topics and assessed Service members perceptions of how military culture relates to the Wellness areas of interest.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 2014
- Accession Number
- ADA618110