State Department provides promotional advantages based on gender, report finds

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State Department spokesman responds to criticism of controversial new DEI chief

Fox News' Griff Jenkins questions State Department spokesman Matthew Miller about new chief diversity and inclusion officer Zakiya Carr Johnson's past comments calling America a 'failed historic model.'

FIRST ON FOX: Data shows that the State Department discriminates against men when it comes to offering promotions in the foreign service, according to a new report from the Heritage Foundation.

In all five foreign service officer career tracks, which include consular affairs, economic affairs, political affairs, public diplomacy and management, open sourced State Department data shows women were promoted at a higher rate than men in 2023, up to 13% in some cases, even though men outnumber women in the foreign service officer corps. 

The challenge for men in foreign service is nothing new, however. Heritage also found that men were being promoted at a significantly smaller rate across the board in all five foreign service officer career tracks between 2020 and 2022. 

Furthermore, a 2020 Government Accountability report found that between 2003 and 2018 "women in the Foreign Service generally spent fewer years in each rank relative to men."

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Simon Hankinson, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation and the author of the organization's report highlighting the discriminatory concerns facing men in the State Department, told Fox News Digital that the agency's current path "opens the department to legal action by employees," noting that such discrimination lawsuits have been filed in the past. 

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"This report exposes the administration’s pattern — under the guise of ‘equity’ — of promoting women at higher rates than men, with no logical explanation other than preference based on sex alone," Hankinson said. "Today’s findings urge corrective action to restore merit-based promotion."

Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks at an International Women's Day event at the State Department in Washington, D.C., on March 8.

Upon taking office in 2021, President Biden mandated each federal agency to submit a detailed report on how they have and will continue to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in order to deliver "equitable outcomes." Several months later, Secretary of State Antony Blinken appointed the agency's first-ever chief diversity and inclusion officer.

Under the Biden administration, the State Department also pledged to hire 30% more women for its Diplomatic Security Service by 2030, recommended "periodic assessments of the practice of [Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility] in [public diplomacy]," and engaged in other efforts to promote "diversity" aimed at females and people of color at the agency. 

Furthermore, these efforts by the Biden administration were matched by efforts in Congress as well. In 2021, a cohort of House Democrats introduced a bill to increase diversity in the foreign service's promotion practices to "improve retention and fairness" for women and minorities. 

"It's imperative in my judgment that we continue to build a department that fully reflects our diversity – it is our strength around the world – and we've been working to do that," Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Congress earlier this year.    

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Secretary of State Antony Blinken appointed the department's first-ever chief diversity and inclusion officer in 2021. (Getty Images)

Spokespeople for President-elect Donald Trump indicated during his campaign that when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion under the Biden administration "all staff, offices, and initiatives … will be immediately terminated" once he takes office. During Trump's first tenure in the Oval Office, he passed an executive order meant to "combat offensive and anti-American race and sex stereotyping and scapegoating" in employment practices. 

Amid the speculation about Trump's incoming administration, diversity, equity and inclusion proponents have been sounding the alarm.

"We as DEI leaders across sectors will need to step up now more than ever into advocacy and educator roles to provide the tangible corporate benefit—from business development to bottom-line profits—and ensure that these roles and initiatives are not washed away," Nicole Ridley, head of operations at the Financial Alliance for Racial Equity, told Fortune.

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Fox News Digital reached out to the State Department for comment but did not receive a response by press time.