I'm actually surprised it isn't higher. I served in the Army 12 years ago right out of high school. I was sexually assaulted on my 19th birthday and was quickly instructed not to press charges, as it would hurt my military career. As punishment, I was sent to a different company and received numerous death threats that went ignored. In the 6 months that followed, I met several women who had been in my same position.

Wow, I just read the article from MSNBC and am shocked. I had no idea that sexual harassment is such a problem for women in the military. I think that it is amazing that they are creating services for these women though. It's interesting that even when Americans are thrown into a completely different environment, culture, and country, male dominance is still there. I feel that one of the reasons that women are sexually harassed in the military is because the male soldiers feel threatened--because women are "infiltrating" something that has always been masculine. These courageous women pose a threat to their masculinity and the men therefore must gain the control and dominance back.

Wow, I just read the article from MSNBC and am shocked. I had no idea that sexual harassment is such a problem for women in the military. I think that it is amazing that they are creating services for these women though. It's interesting that even when Americans are thrown into a completely different environment, culture, and country, male dominance is still there. I feel that one of the reasons that women are sexually harassed in the military is because the male soldiers feel threatened--because women are "infiltrating" something that has always been masculine. These courageous women pose a threat to their masculinity and the men therefore must gain the control and dominance back. The woman in the article being forced to change her clothes in the shower is a perfect example--she was threatened so much and felt so afraid by the men's advances and behaviors that she had to do things she wouldn't normally do.

I just did a piece for the Women's Media Center on this topic. http://www.womensmediacenter.com/ex/071808.html

The only thing that is surprising about this is the fact that it is being covered. These numbers are lower than reality in large part because of what Tucker mentioned above; as military women we are told to suck it up and move on.

The reporting about the VA and military making moves to correct the situation are overstated. The Facility in NJ has a grand total of 10 beds. http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2007/10/ap_vasexassaults_071028/

There is fundamental change that need to happen that are not addressed at all, such as military over bonding over homophobic and sexist actions/language.

I was groped by a fellow intelligence student when I was in the Air Force. I made the difficult decision to report him (difficult because there wasn't any real evidence for it), and I'm glad I did. When I told my sergeant, she informed me that I wasn't the first to report such actions out of this guy.

If you ever doubt whether to report, find someone you can trust, and do it. You may be the corroborating evidence it takes to peg a repeating offender.

This is not surprising to me at all because I know that the military, from my Marine point of view, is a very hostile environment for women. Put it this way, it was a common colloquialism when I was in the Corps to hear the males refer to WM's (which stands for Woman Marine) as "worthless marines," which was bullshit because I knew many a Marine that carried more than one X chromosome that were definitely not worthless, but I digress. Misogyny takes on completely different levels in the military. Combined with unmitigated combat and operational stress, the military brand of misogyny was bound to result in violence against sisters-in-arms, because most male service members (I can only speak for Marines and Navy) back when I served had a deeply cut belief that women should not be serving alongside them, even in non-combative occupational specialties - an idea which is absurd if you really think about it. Women have proven their mettle many times over in all arenas of life, but they just can't get any respect in the military. But, why should we expect better of service members? Why would we expect anything to be different? The military is made up of normal people doing things they wouldn't normally do had they not signed up. Thus, the military is an amplified cross-section of society - amplified due to occupational stress which usually isn't properly dealt with and mitigated. Not to excuse the violent behavior of the perpetrators, but to indict military leadership on, first, not punishing these animals with extreme prejudice and, second, not working to eradicate the mental and intellectual conditions that make these folks "animals" in the first place. Gender equality is given little more than lip service in the military, no matter how many sexual harassment classes the males are forced to go to. It still has yet to click with the morons that commit these crimes, and the depraved souls who cheer them on, that women are human beings just like them. That core fact has yet to truly be addressed and it's so obvious that someone who has been out for nine years (myself) can even point it out.

But in a military that represents a society where women still have yet to be recognized as fully human, should we really expect more? Until society changes its views of women, we can't even begin to expect gender equality in the military.

What is the sexual harrassment rate for women outside the military?

I'm surprised it's so low - Given that upto 1 in 4 women (depending on the survey) experience rape or attempted rape during their lives 15% in the military seem low in comparison...

alex - I think women in the military are probably even MORE afraid to report it.

Alex- I think it's also important to note that the 15% came from "women veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan who have walked into a VA facility," which is a pretty narrow set of women, I would think. These are veterans of wars that have only(ugh, I hate to say "only") been going on for the past 7 years or so, and are only those women which have come into VA facilities for some sort of reason (we can't really assume that sexual assault/abuse/harrassment was the reason for their visit to the VA), and only women who were willing to divulge the information regarding their abuse/assault.

I agree that the figure seems (and most likely is) quite low, especially when compared to the 1 in 3 or 1 in 4 rape/attempted rape stats, but those take a lifetime into account, not just a 7 yr time frame.

What syndicalist89104 said about our general culture needing to change is true BUT the military also prides itself on holding itself to a higher standard under UCMJ. Adultry is against military regs along with a whole host of things like calling President Bush a fascist.

If the threat of punishment for being openly gay, calling Bush a facsist or adultry causes people to think twice about those actions and often times not do them, then why aren't women givien the same seriousness when it comes to their harrassment and deaths (See the story about Lavena Johnson http://www.democracynow.org/2008/7/23/suicide_or_murder_three_years_after )

I would argue that it is becasue this issue is NOT treated with the same seriousness that helps these things happen. Whether or not this is the case in civilian life is largely irrelavant when seeking justice. Civillian life does not have a contract signed in order to enter it and even most careers/jobs do not have these rates of sexual assault.

The military needs to be held accountable for its role. Civilian life does not have a counterpart organization to hold as responsible so the two should not be compared as such.
If any other employer had these rates it would be an epidemic.

Its important to note how women who have served in differing branches of the military all seem to have stories that are so similar.

Alex101 commented at July 23, 2008 9:44 AM: "I'm surprised it's so low - Given that upto 1 in 4 women (depending on the survey) experience rape or attempted rape during their lives 15% in the military seem low in comparison..."

Is that 15% for women in the military rapes and rape attempts that happened while they were in the military, or that happened to them ever in their lives so far?

I heard that (in the U.S.) the 25% for women in general includes rapes and rape attempts that happened to them when they were girls and that the % of rapes and rape attempts of female victims that happen to girls instead of women is way higher than the % of female people who are girls instead of women (maybe rapists find it even easier to attack kids than to attack adults?).

California is about to have the first annual Women Veterans' Conference, and the California Women's Commission has also commissioned the first ever statewide survey on women veterans. Hopefully these can help get some more accurate statistics and understanding.
http://www.canow.org/canoworg/2008/07/women-veterans.html

Not only is the 15% figure only for a small subset of women during a certain part of their lives, but it only includes conduct that occurred *while on active duty*. I'm not sure exactly what that means. I looked it up, but I wasn't able to find a good, concise, unambiguous definition. In some situations it appears to mean "not in the reserves if the reserve unit isn't activated," but in other cases it seems to mean something more specific. In particular, I'm left unsure whether training is "active duty." In any case--and *especially* if training isn't "active duty" as it was defined for the survey--women soldiers are almost surely in military contexts that aren't considered active duty, and any sexual trauma that occurred in those settings wouldn't be counted. So that's another factor that accounts for the low figure.

Active duty is anytime a service member is called to serve for training, deployment, drill or otherwise duty hours and off duty hours inclusive. If you're regular full time millitary this would mean from the day you enlist to the day you get out. Honestly the millitary treats women who report getting raped like criminals, so I won't be surprised at all if these things are under reported. If I'd been raped I wouldn't report if to any military personel, except maybe a doctor if I couldn't get to a civilian ER.

I'm assuming everyone here knows about LaVena Johnson, the army soldier who was found dead in 2005? The military has declared it a suicide and refuses to reopen the case. They won't even speak to the family or media on the matter. But her parents are convinced that she was raped, murdered, and that now authorities and Congress are trying to cover up the whole crime. It's really messed up, obviously. Here is my blog on it.
http://covergirlsthedocumentary.blogspot.com/2008/08/lavena-johnson-case-closed.html