While the debate over the current ban against openly gay service members in the US military continues in Washington, there is another story about the consequences of breaking barriers in the military that is also getting attention: the ongoing prevalence of sexual violence against women in the military. The BBC carried an interesting story this morning about the difficult position that many women service members find themselves in, where they either must be silent victims or be run out of the army for reporting the violent crimes committed against them.
This story follows other reports and op-eds that have appeared in recent years in several American news sources, including the New York Times, LA Times, Associated Press, and PBS. The Pentagon has released figures suggesting that one-third of women in the military have faced sexual harassment, and it is estimated that only 10% of rapes that occur are reported despite significant monetary investment in programs to encourage reporting sexual crimes. With this in mind, given that nearly 3000 cases of sexual assault were reported in the military last year, the final number can be as high as 30,000. In fact, a woman service member is more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire.
Rape is not a problem that is limited to the military; it is a very real problem in everyday life as well. But what is clear from the reports on sexual violence in the military is that there remains a culture that is passive to the issue and is all too willing to look the other way. Women who suffer these crimes are blamed for them occurring, similar to how rape was treated prior to the feminist movement of the 1960s and 70s. These women join the military to serve their country with honor, and in return are treated with the highest form of disrespect.
I am sure that there are some who would say that having women in the military is the actual problem and sexual violence is merely a symptom. This is nonsense. More than anything, it is the culture that creates this paradigm needs to change. If the military actively prosecuted reported cases and stopped punishing the women reporting them, other service members would undoubtedly take notice and change their behavior. But until this is done, sexual violence will remain a problem in the military.
