Military

Women play a tremendous role in the U.S. military. I will be researching if there is violence against women in the U.S. military by male co -soldiers in general and focusing on the years 2000-2001.

For many years women soldiers have been sexually assaulted in agonizing and dehumanizing ways by their own male counterparts. This abuse not only takes place out in the battle field, but it also takes place in the comfort of ones home base. Since the passing of the Sex Discrimination Act in 1984, more women than ever before have entered the military. The U.S. has currently 14.3% of women serving in the military (Hidler, N. 2004). Although the Sex Discrimination Act was passed, sexual assault of service women continues to rise. Recently the army has acknowledged the increase of sexual assault from 19% to 25% over the last five to seven years. Sexual assault is not the only form of violence women in the military encounter. They also encounter physical abuse, emotional abuse, and retaliation from male co-soldiers for reporting any such incidents. "Women within the military are ...considered fair targets. In a recent study, 30% of female veterans reported experiencing rape or attempted rape by U.S. servicemen. According to a Department of Defense survey, one in five female cadets at the Air Force Academy said they had been sexually assaulted during their time there. Unfortunately many of these assaults were not reported when they occurred because the victims feared retaliation, such as damage to their careers or being accused of being disloyal or unpatriotic (Marshall 2004)."

"Of the substantiated cases of sexual assault against women soldiers in 2001; 57% of them were considered mild abuse, 36% moderate and 7% severe (Prevention Research 2002)." Data is hard to obtain on this subject, whether or not the accused soldiers are prosecuted for the assaults that they commit, but it is apparent that relatively few military personnel are held responsible and are prosecuted and administratively sanctioned on charges. According to the January 24 Denver Post, women soldiers who have been sexually assaulted reported poor medical treatment, lack of counseling, incomplete criminal investigations and threats of punishment. "Assault victims are often left in the same units as their accused attackers, where they must continuously salute them (Campbell 2003)."

A story to relate to the lack of support for those women who go through a form of abuse by male co-soldiers is one about Elizabeth Saum, a woman who served in the Air Force. Elizabeth Saum suffered torn cartilage in her chest, bruised ribs, bruises on her neck and post-traumatic stress disorder after she was given a mandatory order to play the part of a prisoner of war during a videotaped field exercise in a program at the Air Force Academy in Colorado. Her captors just happened to be all male. They beat her, unbuttoned her pants, climbed on top of her and pretended to rape her. The resistance part of the training was dropped due to the videotape that circulated around the academy that many found humiliating. This tape although did not stop the abuse of women enrolled at the academy. Between 1993 and 2002, 142 reports of sexual assault were made to authorities at the Air Force Academy. Eighteen cadets accused of assault graduated from the Air Force Academy and received commissions. The graduates continued to ascend the ranks of the military, including U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army, according to the September 2003 report of an independent commission appointed by Congress to investigate the allegations. A change in leadership April 2003 didn't stop the assaults or improve the chances of prosecution. The new Air Force Academy leaders have dealt with 21 sexual misconduct reports filed between April 2003 and January of this year. Of those, only one has resulted in charges being filed (Women's News 2004).

This is a big issue that continues to rise. Reading about women soldiers that have been raped, continue to express the issue of going to another male co-soldiers and reporting abuse. One soldier says, "You have to report it to a man, who talks to a man, who gives it to a man, to make the decision (Amnesty International 2004)." A crime was committed, but he is a soldier therefore he is protected. This thing is what discourages women service members from coming forward. Not only is the issue overlooked, but then the women are the ones to blame for it and many women also feel that they must protect the military. "I was just told; "What do you expect being a female in combat? You think it's bad now; you open your mouth again. Because I wanted to be a soldier I didn't. I actually had this warped sense of obligation and duty to the military...and one of the reasons I didn't say anything else was because women are only now being accepted as soldiers, and this was something I wanted to do. I wanted to serve my country and I didn't want anyone to know that this happened in the military because what would people think about the army then and then they wouldn't want to join (Amnesty International 2004)."

Women are also punished for coming forward. "... I was pregnant from the rape and reported I didn't know who the father was because it was multiple men, so the military gave me an abortion and then after the abortion discharged me because they didn't want women like me in the military. ...So I went home in disgrace (Amnesty International 2004)." Many women don't even bother reporting it because they love their jobs and they do not want to be demoted or kicked out the army. A recent study reports that three fourths of female veterans who were raped did not report the incident to a ranking officer. One third didn't know how to; and one fifth believed that rape was to be expected in the military (Sadler, Booth, Cook and Doebbeling, 2003).

In the year 2000, 169,205 females were active duty 743 reported sexual assault and 373 reported being raped. In 2001 172,970 females were active duty and 762 reported sexual assault and 425 reported being raped (Department of defense). In 2001-2002 estimates suggest that sexual assault in the military was experienced by three percent of female service members, according to the survey released by the Department of Defense (Defense Manpower Data Center 2002). An earlier study conducted by the Defense Manpower Center indicated that 6 percent of female respondents were victims of actual or attempted rape. The numbers that are given probably undermine the actual number of women service members who are victims of sexual assault; this is because there are a number of incidents not reported.

For many of decades women fought for the right to be in the military and just as equal as men. Is this the cost that women