| According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) an estimated one in six women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime, however, women in the military could face a high chance of being sexually assaulted.
According to a press release this year in the fiscal year of 2007, 2,688 reports of sexual assault involving service members were filed. That press release was issued in conjunction with the release of the Department of Defense Fiscal Year 2007 Report on Sexual Assault in the Military. In the same press release the Gender Relations Survey reported that 34% of active duty women indicated experiencing sexual harassment.
There were about 3,000 reported sexual assaults in the military reported in 2006, there were about 2,300 reported in 2005, and there were about 1,700 reported in 2004. However, these numbers do not represent the actual number of sexual assaults when you consider that according to statistics 60% of sexual assaults go unreported.
How does the hyper-masculine environment of the military and the culture of sexism and the code of silence does not discourage the sexual violence and harassment against the women of the military?
"What happens out to sea, stays out to sea." Much like the Las Vegas slogan, the military community has often embraced the code of silence. This code forms a level of truth among military members, which is needed in the stressful situations of deployments and in possible combat situations. When service members find themselves away from home they form friendships and bonds that are unlike any other. In these friendships the idea of trust is very important as any topic may be discussed and secrets are often revealed.
This code has its purposes; however, this code is often used for the wrong reasons. The code of silence extends beyond from overseas to home. The code of not "ratting out" your fellow service member has long been a part of military culture. It has been used at times in order to protect the guilty and ostracize the victims.
The code of silence combined with the hyper-masculine culture of sexism can create a dangerous environment for women service members.
There are approximately 1.5 million people on active duty, and women make up about 15% of the armed services. This means that in most military working environments women are vastly outnumbered by their male counterparts. In this environment women who do not exhibit masculine characteristics are often times not treated as equals, and the voices of those that disagree with women serving the military are still heard.
In the military the belief is that you do what you are asked to do, the mission comes first. Our military members sacrifice many things, and they work for little compensation. However, there is an attitude of grin and bear it, that you do your job and that you do not complain. You follow orders.
It is in this sense that when a female service member files a sexual harassment complaint or a sexual assault charge there is an underlying negative reaction among their peers. If a complaint or charge is filed it causes a disruption, and paperwork must be filed out and personnel assignments must be changed. Instead of an outrage over the fact that someone within the ranks would commit such an action against their own, there is many times a reaction negatively against the victim. She would not tough it out. She is a complainer. She is a trouble maker.
To suggest that the Department of Defense is consciously and deliberately ignoring and covering up sexual assault in the military is a strong accusation, but it is an accusation that has already been suggested. According to an article on TruthDig.com a question that would have been asked was the reason behind the Department of Defense had taken three years to name a task force to investigate sexual assault in the military and why the panel has yet to meet. However, it is difficult to believe that there is not a systematic failure in military justice when some studies have concluded that as much as a third of female veterans affirm that they were sexually assaulted while in the military, and as many as 90% claim they were sexually harassed.
This is an issue that the Department of Defense needs to take seriously, Congress should continue to examine the military's policies, and journalists should continue to investigate in order to find the truth. Our mothers, sisters, and daughters have chosen to wear the uniform, and the least that we can do as a nation is to guarantee that they are ensured the same rights as our fathers, brothers, and sons.
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