New Plans Offered to Fight Sexual Harassment in Navy

As the Navy braced for the results of a probe into the Tailhook scandal, the service’s most senior civilian called Thursday for new initiatives to combat sexual harassment in the Navy’s ranks.

Acting Navy Secretary Sean O’Keefe proposed expanding the training of women at sea and in joint exercises, tracking sexual harassment and assault complaints more effectively, and providing victims of harassment--as well as those accused of it--with better and more accessible counseling.

He also commissioned an assessment on whether post-Cold War cutbacks in the Navy will affect women’s career opportunities.

O’Keefe’s directives, detailed in a memorandum to a special committee studying the status of women in the Navy, came just three days after a House panel lauded the Navy for putting in place a program aimed at stamping out sexual harassment. At the same time, the House Armed Services Committee cautioned that the success of the Navy’s program will require years of vigilance.

The release of a report on the investigation into alleged sexual assaults at a 1991 Tailhook convention in Las Vegas is expected soon, and Navy leaders are eager to demonstrate that the service is putting the problem of sexual harassment behind it.

O’Keefe called on the standing committee to give him a full report by Sept. 30, outlining ways to implement the new measures. He called the steps part of a “systemic approach to deal effectively with sexual harassment and gender discrimination,” by changing the Navy’s male-oriented culture.

O’Keefe formed the Standing Committee on Women in the Naval Service when he was named acting Navy secretary in July.

The committee now will consider opening to Navy and Marine Corps women a range of assignments from which they have been barred, said Capt. Marsha Evans, chairwoman of the committee’s working group on enhancing professional opportunities for women.

O’Keefe directed the standing committee to draw up a plan ensuring that women are not “disproportionately affected as a result of drawdown decisions.”

The initiatives unveiled Thursday would create a single system to consolidate information about sexual harassment and assault complaints within the service. While some of the Navy’s regional commands have kept information on such complaints, the data has never been maintained in a central location or a standardized form.

The new system, O’Keefe said, will “provide the Navy with a comprehensive, accurate yardstick of its progress in eliminating these types of unacceptable behavior.”

But the most immediate effect of O’Keefe’s initiatives is expected to come with the establishment of a toll-free telephone line to provide Navy and Marine Corps personnel with confidential counseling on sexual harassment.

Because the definition of sexual harassment is often subjective, said Rear Adm. Mariann Stratton, leader of one of O’Keefe’s working groups, those who feel they have become involved in a sexual harassment case could call “to get a check . . . to get some additional support.”