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Title of Article: Impact of Gender on Reactions to Military Sexual Assault and Harassment
Date of article: February 2014
Author(s): Margret E. Bell, Jessica A. Turchik, Julie A. Karpenko
Source (Please attach copy of article): Bell, M., Turchik, J., & Karpenko, J. (2014). Impact of Gender on Reactions to Military Sexual Assault and Harassment. Health & Social Work, 39(1), 25-33.
ARTICLE SUMMARY:
Social Workers have a need to advance an understanding of working with veterans especially women affected by the concerns of sexual assault and harassment. The authors reviewed and referenced studies such as from the Department of Defense displays women in the military had more experience with sexual assault than men in their military service. The article shows how social workers seminar themselves of the needs of the veterans recovery from their sexual assault and harassment. The negative outcomes of these concepts can have a ripple effect on one’s health for years or decades. Women service members are being classified as second class citizens and getting less support from their peers and superiors. Also, women are most likely to confront the different types of sexual assault such as sexual attention and coercion from their perpetrators in the opposite sex. One large study from the Air Force personnel indicates women are more prone to disclose by sharing their emotions and experiences to friends and family than their male counterpart. In formal seeking help, a barrier on women has reported being uneasiness of getting treatment operated by the male environment and sixty-six percent would prefer seeing a female physician for their health care. The gender identities for women are observed as weak and vulnerable that interrupts the...
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...ment, sexual orientation, gender identity, etc. Thus, social workers provide advice, empowerment, resources, and support for the needs of these military service women to safeguard their stability in society.
Personal Observations/Reactions to Reading:
My personal reaction is I’m stunned that these unforgiving atrocities sexual experience are happening to our fellow women in the military that fought hard and ensuring our freedom in the country we prosper in. From these studies in the article, it’s horrible to see how sexual assault and experience can reduce veteran’s life experience to a low quality standard to live. As I’m studying to become a social worker, I will gladly work tirelessly to the meet the needs of my future military service women clients to get the best possible therapy and resources to integrate themselves better in today’s society.
From the end of the draft in 1973 to the military data from 2003, the number of women in service rose from 2 percent to 12 percent. A sample of military women studied in 1991 showed 69 percent to have experienced sexual harassmen...
...t and seeing signs of improvement in their mental health (Edge, 2010). Ultimately, the current structure of the United States’ society under capitalism does not allow for an adequate solution to the social problem of the rise of PTSD among military members. Society is structured around individual and corporate interests, which does not leave room for the unique treatments required for PTSD. Unless capitalism is dismantled and a socialist society is created, which would dramatically change the current military structure and potentially reinstate the draft, soldiers will be forced to seek treatment from the neoconservative and liberal systems that offer inadequate treatment, if at all. As social workers, we must operate from the radical humanist perspective of structural social work and seek to help our military members from within the current system, for now.
Military records show over 20 percent of female veterans have been sexually assaulted (Ziering and Dick The Invisible War). As well as being assaulted, these women are then told no further action will be taken. 33 percent of military women do not report their sexual assault because the person to report to was a friend of the rapist (Ziering and Dick The Invisible War). Those who do come forward are punished for making such allegations. As the film continues, it begins to show overwhelming evidence of lack of punishment for the offenders....
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.
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).
My personal reaction is I praise these women interviewees for participating in the study to discover new information and data of what transpires of sexual assault among women in the military that has been going for decades. It shows how the justice system concerning with sexual assault is broken and needs to hold the perpetrators more accountable that performs these hideous sexual criminal acts. I do acknowledge my United States New York senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, for proposing Military Justice Improvement Act to support the survivors of sexual assault and receiving the justice they deserved. I do hope the US servicewomen confront the obstacles they face against military sexual assault without fear and bring justice in full force.
Ode, Kim. "Sexual Trauma: Women Vets' Secret War." ProQuest, 18 Dec. 2010. Web. 20 Mar. 2012.
No one ever imagines, that the women who risk their lives daily are actually facing their own battles here within our own home front? For those that have been unfortunate and are survivors of such a heinous crime. They will go throughout their lives having their own battles to fight against. Studies have shown that those who go through MST, will deal with some form of psychological problems later on in life. One of the biggest, being Post-traumatic stress, also known as PTSD (pg. 7). A research states that those who have been exposed to MST, have a higher PTSD rate than those who
hard working women as whores and lesbians and felt the women on the front lines of combat were only there for the moral support of the male troops. These false accusations humiliated the women and had a huge impact on the attitudes of people and policies regarding women in front line combat for the decades to come” (Moskos 54). Along with these accusations came the tests of the military manpower and strategies.
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
From the mothers and fathers of the daughters and sons in the military to the friends that are left back home when someone enlists and prepares on their journey, this film provides a starting point to influence conversation’s about the sexual violence and injustice prevalent across the DOD. The film speaks out to the audience’s emotions by delivering jaw-dropping statistics all while providing a strong ethical basis of trustworthy resources, interviews, and statistics. This documentary is a great example of how using pathos, ethos and logos to implore an audience to question how the DOD reacts to MST. By combining all these rhetoric appeals, Kirby is able to convince the audience that there is sexual misconduct in the military and there is no evidence to prove that they are doing anything about
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...
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.
In the operation of the healthcare system, gender plays a central role. Gender discrimination in the healthcare exists either in the field of education, workplace or while attending to the patients. Interestingly, as opposed to other areas where discrimination lies heavily to a particular gender; gender inequality in health happens to both women and men. Gender inequality in the health care service negatively affects the quality of care given and perpetuates patient biases to a gender. Also, the gender disparities in the field of health assists researchers and practitioners to study conditions and their probable manifestations within both sexes.