RAND Military Workplace Study

Composite image of soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Coast Guard personnel

Photos by (clockwise from top left) Cpl. C.D. Clark; Christopher Lindahl; JBSA-Lackland PA; Coast Guard Cutter Polar Sea / U.S. Department of Defense

In early 2014, the Department of Defense Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office asked the RAND National Defense Research Institute to conduct an independent assessment of the rates of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and gender discrimination in the military. The resulting study, the RAND Military Workplace Study (RMWS), invited close to 560,000 U.S. service members to participate in a survey fielded in August and September of 2014, making it one of the largest surveys of its kind ever conducted for the Department of Defense (DoD).

Findings from the RAND Military Workplace Study

In this presentation, RAND co-project leader Kristie L. Gore presents an overview of the final findings from the RAND Military Workplace Study.

The RMWS provides DoD with unprecedented detail on the frequency of criminal sexual assault against its members, the nature and context of those assaults, and how they differ for men and women in each branch of service. The study also provides new evidence on the prevalence and nature of sexual harassment and gender discrimination in the military. Detailed results are documented in four comprehensive volumes available for download from this site.

Study Publications

Explore more publications and multimedia from the WGRS project

More Information

The study’s Frequently Asked Questions page contains answers to many specific questions about the study's purpose and methodology.