Fewer women work at DHS – 33.7 percent — compared to the rest of the federal workforce – 44.6 percent — according to a report released by Democrats on the House Homeland Security committee.
Overall, women range from a high of 60 percent of Citizenship and Immigration Services to a low of 24 percent of Customs and Border Protection.
The figures reflect the high concentration of male-dominated law enforcement officer jobs at the department, and carry over into the senior executive ranks where they make up 25.3 percent of career SES versus 28.9 percent of executive branch career SES overall.
DHS has not done well in terms of the diversity of is SES cadre, said committee chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., urging the department to "recognize the need for minorities and women within its leadership ranks and undertake vigorous recruitment, retention, and promotion programs to begin resolving the glaring absence."
According to the report, African Americans represent 6.5 percent of the DHS SES, versus 8.5 percent of the SES, Asians make up 1.7 percent of the DHS SES, versus 2.3 percent of the executive SES, and all other racial groups comprise 0.7 percent of the DHS SES versus 1.7 percent of the executive SES.
Hispanics make up 16.5 percent of the total DHS workforce compared to 7.3 percent of the total federal workforce, ranging from a high of 30.7 percent of CBP – much of it focused along the heavily Hispanic Southwest border region – to a low of 2.7 percent of the Nuclear Detection Office.
