FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sept. 24, 2018

WIIS Releases Gender Scorecard of Leading DC Think Tanks

Significant gender gaps remain at expert staff, leadership and board levels at top institutions  

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Think tanks in DC continue to be staffed and managed primarily by men with only three of  22 institutions having an equal number of men and women on staff, a report released today by Women In International Security (WIIS) has found.

The WIIS Gender Scorecard presents data with regard to the gender balance of 22 major thinks tanks that work on foreign policy and national and international security issues in the DC area. The scorecard reviews think tanks along four main axes: 1) percentage of women leading think tanks; 2) percentage of women experts; 3) percentage of women in governing bodies; 4) and number of think tanks with significant commitment to gender and/or women’s programming

“Despite the strides women have made in the security field, this scorecard shows significant gender gaps within the think tank community,” said Chantal de Jonge Oudraat, president of WIIS. “We also still have a long way to go to recognize the importance of gender in the analysis of national and international security challenges,” she added.

Other significant findings from the gender scorecard include:

• Heads of top DC think tanks: 68 percent men
• Average percentage of experts in DC think tanks by gender: 73 percent men
• Average percentage of Governing Board members in think tanks: 78 percent men
• Think tanks with significant gender programming: 1 out of 22

On a positive note, three institutions have achieved gender parity at the expert staff level:

• The Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI)
• The Stimson Center
• The US Institute of Peace (USIP)

As a result of these findings, WIIS will soon launch a roster of women board candidates. The full gender scorecard is available here.