Critical Mass: What Happens When Women Start to Rule the World - led by Jay Newton-Small

Date: 

Thursday, March 5, 2015, 4:00pm

Location: 

Faculty Dining Room, HKS

Week Three:

Military/Intelligence/Police: We think of the military, intelligence and law enforcement as some of the most masculine workplaces around. But no institution is more keenly aware of maintaining the right male-to-female ratio than the Navy. Since integrating female sailors on its ships more than 20 years ago, the Navy has done countless studies on what is the right number of women on a ship. One didn’t work, neither did a handful. But somewhere north of 17% and the ship not only balanced out, but worked better than all male ships. The CIA is surprisingly one of the best balanced agencies, in terms of sex: nearly half its workforce, 46%, are women. The DNI and the National Geospatial Agency—the satellite geeks—also are more than 30% female. The intelligence community has lead the government in terms of flexible schedules and work/life balance. Even local law enforcement studies have found that having a critical mass of women on police forces—especially as beat cops—tends to lower the number of violent, police involved incidents. And in the wake of Ferguson, who wouldn’t want that?

***All study groups are off-the-record and not for media coverage***