The United States has made it very obvious that women have a hard time in the military with gender discrimination while serving their country. According to McSally (2011), “women now make up 14.6 percent of the U.S. military” (p. 1). Women are restricted from serving in more than 220,000 of those positions in the military. Some of these positions are artillery, tanks, Special Forces, and combat engineering. Since 2001, more than 255,000 women have been deployed to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, where more than 120 have been killed and 700 wounded (McSally, 2011, p. 2). The biggest problem with women being in the military is that they’re viewed as sexual prey. Also, women are paid lesser than men no matter what position they have.
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However, if a woman is qualified physically and mentally then why keep them from getting the position? According to McSally (2011), “in a time of war, we need to pick the best “man” for every job, even if she is a woman” (p. 2). That clearly states that it does not matter what gender you are if you can get the job done. Women in the military are highly discriminated against and it is not fair. By the military being a male-dominate profession, men just automatically discriminate against women but not really meaning to. In 2011, the champions of equal rights celebrated the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell”, which allows lesbians, gays, and bisexuals to serve in the military. Before signing the bill President Obama gave an inspiring speech about fairness, justice, and equal rights for everyone in the military. According to McSally (2011), “supporters of repeal testified that integrating gay soldiers followed the path of ending military discrimination against African Americans and women” (p. 1). Women should not be tortured because of their gender; everyone should have equal …show more content…
Sexual assault tends to have a greater damaging effect on military women. Military sexual trauma is when someone is threatened to perform sexual activity against their will while serving in the military. According to Wolff and Mills (2016), since 2004, there has been increased effort to reduce military sexual trauma (MST) in the U.S. military. Which means they are doing their best to make sure that the women get treatment for MST. The majority of women who are being sexually assaulted do not report the incidents. Statistics show “Out of 52 female veterans, the majority (90%) was subjected to at least one form of MST, and 15% (8) attempted to report the incident(s)” (Wolff & Mills, 2016). When women are sexually assaulted in the military it can destroy that trust between the soldiers. These women are afraid to report to anyone because they think they won’t be heard and they should not feel that way. According to Wolff and Mills (2016), “The majority of veterans remained silent due to lack of options to report, the status of perpetrators, and fear of retaliation” (p. 1). These women should be able to defend themselves in every way when necessary without having the fear of someone retaliating
In 1996, Captain Derrick Robinson, Sergeant Delmar Simpson, and Sergeant Nathanael Beech were arraigned for their suspected involvement in one of the biggest sex scandals the United States Military had seen. According to CNN, between these three men, charges of rape and adultery were pending in a huge case of sexual misconduct against female soldiers at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland (CNN, 2996). Following this incident, the United States Military took it upon themselves to open a telephone hotline to encourage the reporting of similar harsh crimes. Furthermore, the spike in reporting influenced extensive research to examine the prevalence of rape against women soldiers in the U.S. Military (Titunik, 2000). This paper will explore the dynamics of rape against women soldiers in the military and the research done on its prevalence.
Being female should not impact how a man would react during tough situations, it is their job to protect as many people in the group as they can. Other than the fact that men will feel more worried about protecting the women, they also said, “men will not be able to restrain themselves sexually if forced to fight and work in close proximity to women.” In the military women and men all have the same uniform, which shows minimal skin, and women obligated to have their hair up in a bun, with no makeup on. The excuses they use to keep women out of the military only seem to become more irrational as the years have gone
The common story from victims who report being raped, according to a Military Rape Crisis Center worker, is that they were “met with disbelief and skepticism, blamed for the crime, and disposed of one way or another,” (Kitfield). Until the military stops re-victimizing the victims it will never be able to completely eradicate rape from the ranks.
With society’s past and present it is apparent that women are still not equal even if they have the title. Men are observably stronger and have a different mentality in situations than women. This is not to say that women should not be in the military but they should have the choice that way they can accept the responsibility and train themselves mentally and physically to achieve the responsibility and respect needed to fight for our country.
Women are often victims in war in several circumstances. One of the victimizations The more extreme victimization of women occurs through gender violence while in service as a soldier. In the United States, the film The Invisible War recognizes that over one fifth of serving women experienced sexual assault and there is nearly no justice system to combat this. One man had raped several women in the service, but still was able to receive congressional medal of honors for his actions and bravery (The Invisible War).
in the military today. Over 42 percent of all enlisted women say they have sexual harassed by they*re male colleges. There have been major scandals
In the surveys they have referenced in the article, it displays military sexual trauma increases among women during and after military deployment of unwanted sexual contact in recent years. The authors have recruited and conducted of twenty-two US servicewomen telephone interviews from May 2011 to January 2012 to participate a qualitative study with or without their MST experiences. They asked the participants questions regarding about MST during deployment and other factors which are disturbing their reporting and accessing to services against the perpetrators. The issues of sexism, high stress levels, and failed military leadership contributing factors which put these servicewomen in jeopardy of MST. Some of the interview women said that servicewomen do not report MST due to lack of support from peers, unreliable confidentiality, stigma, and other barriers. The interviewees feel more comfortable opening to medical care services after deployment in the United States that grips with sexual assault cases than throughout deployment around the world. The participants have suggested to improving the MST services: by increasing awareness, prosecution, investigation, cultural shift, and independence service providers. The interviewees recognized that Military se...
When it comes to combat assignments and the needs of the military, men take precedence over all other considerations, including career prospects of female service members. Female military members have been encouraged to pursue opportunities and career enhancement within the armed forces, which limit them only to the needs and good of the service due to women being not as “similarly situated” as their male counterparts when it comes to strength or aggressiveness, and are not able to handle combat situations.
In September 2011, the United States lifted the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy (DADT), which restricted gay, lesbian, and bisexuals from openly serving in the military. This was the first time in American history in which people of every sexual orientation could serve openly (“11 Facts About,” n.d.). This was a momentous occasion for some and not so much for others. For those military members that had served in secret and those members that were firmly against gays and lesbians, this repeal had different meaning. Both groups contained members that have served in the military for years and were products of the Former President Bill Clinton’s 1993 “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. For many soldiers of this era, communication issues arose due to a pre-existing mentality, learned rules and regulations in services reinforced for two decades and the general cultural within combat related fields.
The purpose of this essay is to discuss the issue of rape and sexual assault in the military. The number of attacks for rape and sexual assault in the military are at an all-time high. Women have recently been allowed to fight on the front line. While this may be a huge achievement for women-kind, for this woman, it is a very scary thought. I am a junior at Texas Academy of Biomedical Sciences; a school geared towards students wishing to enter the medical field. I may be forced to join the military one day if a war breaks out and women are needed to protect the country. I would be happy to serve my country if I did not have to be scared of my fellow soldiers. Rape and sexual assault are major issues in the military and have been for many years without much effort to decrease the attacks. I am suggesting that unless the rape and sexual assault issue is fixed, the amount of people joining the military, specifically the women, will decrease greatly.
Sexual assault in the military has become one of the most controversial of all issues that have been discussed over the years. The topic has received extensive media coverage and has contributed to multiple media scandals. According to a Newsweek report done in 2011, women are more likely to be assaulted by fellow soldiers than killed in combat. The Department of Defense estimates approximately 19,000 sexual assaults occur per year amongst military personnel. That number is stifling considering that in the last year only 1,108 troops filed for investigation, and of those only 575 cases were processed. Out of the 575 processed cases only 96 went to Court Martial. Obviously from the numbers, sexual assault is a serious issue in the military. Much like in the civilian world there is bias when it comes to the guilt or innocence of the attacker, as well as the validity in the accounts of the accuser. I believe that the system in place may inadvertently contribute to the continuous rise in sexual assaults and that if this system isn’t fixed quickly, it will be detrimental to the organization as a whole. Sexual assault has seriously negative impacts on service members and their families. That impact carries over to their work, limiting mission readiness, and undermining national security.
Military Sexual Trauma (MST) is what Veterans using the VA Healthcare system refer to when discussing sexual harassment and sexual assault that takes place in military settings. “Much of the research literature with military veterans identifies the population of interest through the use of MST screening, for which a positive response can indicate a range of experiences, including rape, sexual Assault, experienced by the veteran during military service” (Street & Stafford, n.d.). Although most people focus the attention on women service members being the victims in a lot of the cases at VA clinics, “data indicates that 50% of survivors are actually men. For example, a 2011 review (Allard, Nunnink, Gregory, Klest, & Platt, 2011) of peer reviewed articles published up to December 2009 identified 74 articles focused on MST, but of those, only two articles focused on men only” (O’Brien, Keith, & Shoemaker, 2015). Sexual Trauma does not only occur during training or peacetime, the stress of war could be associated with rising rates of sexual assault and sexual harassment. “Research with Persian Gulf War military personnel conducted by Jessica Wolfe and colleagues found that rates of sexual assault (7%), physical sexual harassment (33%) and verbal sexual harassment (66%) were higher than those typically found in peacetime military samples” (Street & Stafford, n.d.). None the less, whether a service member is male or female or off to war vs training on US soil, the traumatic experience of falling victim to sexual assault forever change a person’s well-being. “Physical and sexual assault contribute to long-lasting physical and emotional suffering among men and women across the life span” (Bryan, McNaugton-Cassill, Osman, & Hernandez, 2013) therefor suicide rates are rising in sexual assault victims “because they adversely affect the victim’s sense of identity and self-worth, such that the victim begins to perceive him- or herself
women in the military and found that 51.8 % of men and 74.6% of women
The US Military has a long history and jaded history of issues with sexual assault. The number of women sexually assaulted in the US Military is 5% higher than that of women in the ficivilian population; there are an estimated 20,000 sexual assaults on women service members each year. This is not, however, a strictly female problem; it is estimated that nearly half of...
Joining the Unites States military can be rewarding, it can provide you with an education and a life changing experience at least that is what you are told. Even though these statements are true; when the military is recruiting they hide information, for example one is sexual assault among the soldiers, especially females. Sexual assault is described as sexual contact upon a person or persons unwillingly, by means of force, physical threat, and abuse of authority (womenshealth.gov). The purpose of this essay is to discuss the issue of rape and sexual assaults within the military.