The bane of G.I. Jane: 29% of women serving in the US military faced sexual harassment last year

The U.S. military experienced record levels of sexual assault among women last year, with 8.4 percent of active-duty women experiencing unwanted sexual contact and another 29 percent reporting harassment, a Pentagon report says.

Worse still, servicewomen increasingly say they will not get a fair hearing if they report an assault. Only 39 percent said they trusted the military to treat them with dignity and respect after an incident — down from 66 percent in 2018.

Military chiefs called the worsening rates of sexual assault ‘tragic’ and ‘disappointing’ and highlight difficulties in expanding the role of women in the services while also struggling to meet recruiting targets after decades of war.

Reports of sexual assaults in the military overall jumped by 13 percent last year, with nearly 36,000 service members, men and women, describing experiences of unwanted sexual contact in a confidential Department of Defense survey.

Elizabeth Foster, executive director of the Pentagon’s Office of Force Resiliency, told reporters it was ‘tragic, and extremely disappointing’ that so many ‘service members’ lives and careers were irrevocably changed by these crimes’.

Female United States Marine Corps (USMC) recruits from Lima at the first gender integrated training class in San Diego in 2021. A startling 13.4 percent of women marines reported so-called unwanted sexual contact last year 

‘Every incident has a ripple effect across the unit and impacts unit cohesion, ability to trust and distracts from the critical mission at hand,’ she added.

According to officials, the overall increase is largely fueled by a nearly 26 percent jump in reports involving Army soldiers — the largest increase in nearly a decade — as bases lifted Covid-19 pandemic restrictions and public venues reopened.

The sharp rise is troublesome for the Army, which is struggling to meet its recruiting goals and is expected to miss the target by some 10,000 — or by as much as a quarter — at the end of September.

The Pentagon has long struggled to devise schemes to stop unwanted sexual contact, which covers everything from groping to rape, and to encourage more people to come forward.  

While the military has made it easier and safer for service members to report even superior officers, it has had less success in reducing the overall number of assaults, which have risen steadily since 2006. 

President Joe Biden has made sexual harassment a military code offense and last December’s National Defense Authorization Act overhauled military justice, taking decisions on whether to prosecute sexual crimes out of the hands of commanders.

Pictured: Women serving in the U.S. Army, who experience higher rates of harassment and sexual assault compared to other branches of the military, according to a Department of Defense survey released on Thursday

Still, some politicians and campaigners say those steps do not do enough to encourage victimized service members — male and female — to come forward, when many fear being labelled a ‘troublemaker’ or worse. 

U.S. congresswoman Jackie Speier, a co-chair of the Democratic Women’s Caucus, said she would hold a hearing in the coming weeks so the ‘watchful eye of Congress’ could encourage military chiefs to solve a ‘national embarrassment’. 

In recent years, cases like Army Specialist Vanessa Guillen, have spotlighted the issue. The 20-year-old, based at Fort Hood in Texas, was bludgeoned to death, mutilated and buried in a shallow grave after reporting sexual harassment. 

The focus on sexual assaults comes at a tough time for the U.S. military, which is struggling to attract new recruits and faces a shortfall of some 10,000 soldiers this year and bigger problems down the road. 

Research from the Military Family Advisory Network (MFAN) in July found that the number of military personnel who would advise others to enlist sank nearly 12 points to 62.9 percent between 2019 and 2021.

Three quarters of those surveyed were in debt, more than half could not save, 61 percent had trouble paying rent and a troublesome 17 percent said they were so cash-strapped they could not always put enough food on the table.

A vigil for murdered Army Specialist Vanessa Guillen in July, 2020 in Austin, Texas. Guillen was allegedly murdered at Fort Hood by a fellow soldier after reporting sexual harassment

Army chiefs have spoken of ‘unprecedented challenges’ in bringing in recruits, leading to a shortfall of some 10,000 soldiers this year and bigger problems down the road. Pictured: Army recruiters at a career fair in Michigan