The Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services—known as DACOWITS—delivers to the U.S. Department of Defense advice and recommendations on policies related to the recruitment, retention, treatment, employment, integration, and well-being of the highly qualified professional women in the U.S. Armed Forces. In 2017 Insight collected and analyzed data from focus groups with hundreds of military Service members, conducted several literature reviews, and compiled findings from a wide array of data sources to inform 13 topic areas.

Authored by Insight’s military and veteran support team, the DACOWITS’s 2017 Annual Report presents key research finding and 17 recommendations to advise the Secretary of Defense on the following topics: accessions and marketing, dual-military co-location policy, midcareer retention, propensity to serve, recruiting strategies, gender integration, gender-integrated boxing programs at the military service academies, job opportunities and assignments to facilitate promotion, physiological gender differences, childcare resources, family care plans, impact of social media/online harassment, and parental leave policies.