FCC Faces Diversity Struggles; Biden Expected to Increase Pressure

Women and people of color appear to be losing ground at the FCC. Thirty-five percent of full-time staff are white men and 25% white women. Black men are 8.1%, Hispanic men and women each less than 2%. The FCC declined our request to interview Office of Workplace Diversity acting Director D’wana Terry. The agency also didn't comment for this Special Report.

Since 2017, women in FCC senior executive service ranks shrank by more than 10%. As government pay scales go up, women are fewer. “Given the low participation rates at the SES level, the data suggests a potential 'glass ceiling' effect for Black or African American male and female employees above the GS-15 level,” the FCC reported.

Women are 51% of FCC attorneys. In FY 2019, the most recent full year of data, 16 qualified for promotion but only two were promoted. Women are 13% of engineers. Of 337 applicants for five engineering positions, 46 were women, and the FCC hired one. Black women were less than 1.5% of FCC engineers and a single one was hired over the past four years.

Women are less than a third of economists and the ratio is falling. Between 2015 and 2018, the FCC hired 12 economists; two were women. The FCC recently promoted eight economists, none women. No Black men or women were hired as economists in the past four years and none promoted FY 2017-19. Older FCC reports also raise diversity issues. One for FY 2015 listed “identifying measures to increase the participation rates of Hispanic or Latino males and females” and low participation rates of African American females as issues the agency’s Office of Workplace Diversity should tackle. A 2018 report identified “triggers” for participation and promotion of Hispanics and hiring Black women and promoting Black men.

Concerns

“This data speaks volumes,” emailed Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. “It says we have real work to do. It’s time we develop more opportunities, open more doors, and create more space at our tables, especially for women and people of color.”

Commissioner Geoffrey Starks “has made FCC diversity a priority, as reflected in the staffing of his own office and the FCC's Early Career Diversity Program,” a spokesperson emailed. “The commissioner believes the FCC needs to better reflect the diversity of America to implement inclusive policies that address the needs of all Americans."

"The commission has some work to do,” said Henry Rivera, former member now at Wiley. “It has been a fairly constant challenge,” he said: “I sympathize with folks there whose hearts are in the right place but who are swamped with the day-to-day operations.” Commissioners should “make achieving a diverse work force a priority of the institution, which will require allocating the necessary human and fiscal resources to accomplish that goal,” Rivera said: “A more diverse workforce won’t happen overnight and will require a consistent effort.”

“Every agency can do a better job on diversifying its workforce, particularly at the upper levels,” said Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law & Policy's Gigi Sohn. The biggest problem is the pipeline, and the FCC seems to be making an effort, she said. The FCBA diversity pipeline can help the FCC find lawyers, she said. “The numbers are not acceptable.”

“There’s a lot of diversity when you get into the FCC general offices, but you have to also make sure there are people of color sitting at the table making decisions,” said Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Nicol Turner Lee. She helps lead efforts to diversify the tech industry for the FCC Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment.

'Be Intentional'

“The only way for an agency to achieve diversity goals is to be intentional,” said Clint Odom, who worked at the FCC under Chairmen Tom Wheeler and William Kennard, and is now senior vice president-policy and advocacy in the National Urban League’s Washington Bureau. "There are more diverse people in grad and professional school programs across the country, more diverse people serving in corporate America than ever,” Odom said: “If the FCC wants to do a better job, it has ample opportunity.”

Turner Lee said the agency is mindful of employee diversity and praised Chairman Ajit Pai for repeatedly rechartering the ACDDE after the body lapsed under the previous administration. The agency announced earlier this year that in 2021 it will begin a program to pay interns and recruit them from minority-serving institutions and affinity groups. “Targeted outreach will ensure that more students from diverse backgrounds can participate, which benefits the FCC and the communications sector as a whole,” Pai said then.

"The stats speak for themselves -- the FCC is nowhere near where it needs to be,” said former Commissioner Michael Copps, now at Common Cause: “If there was more diversity within the commission, at both early career and decision-making levels, I'll just bet the policies going out would be much more encouraging of diversity and media justice. I hope that new leadership at the top will kick-start significantly more interest in making the personnel and the policies of the FCC reflective of the country."

Officials with diversity groups said they generally have been focused more on policy and industry diversity than on the FCC’s own workplace diversity, largely because of limited resources. The Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council and other "organizations are all understaffed and under-resourced," said MMTC Senior Adviser David Honig. "While we’ve maintained a strong focus on diversity in the industries regulated by the FCC, we’ve not launched a public campaign focused on diversity at the FCC itself.” That doesn’t mean they haven’t thought about it, Honig said. “We have, however, raised this issue for decades with every incoming administration’s transition team.”