Presentation Title
Sexual Harassment in the Military: Explaining the Rise in Assaults
Location
Fenn Tower Ballroom
Presentation Type
Poster Session
Start Date
4-11-2014 4:00 PM
End Date
4-11-2014 4:50 PM
Abstract
According to a recent U.S. Department of Defense (DoD; 2013b) survey, an estimated 26,000 service members were sexually assaulted in 2012, which is a sharp increase from 19,000 in 2010. Of those active-duty military personnel who responded to the confidential DoD survey, 6.1 percent of women reported they had been sexual assaulted (i.e., a term that included anything from rape to unwanted sexual touching) within the last year. From those numbers the Pentagon estimated that approximately 12,100 of active duty women had been victims of sexual assault in the past year alone (U.S. Department of Defense, 2013b). The question to be answered, then, is what factors are contributing to the rise in sexual assault in the military?
In today’s military, women operate in larger numbers and a greater capacity than ever before. As approximately 15%, or nearly 202,400, of the U.S. military’s active duty personnel, women comprise a small faction of a larger male dominated profession (U.S. Department of Defense, 2013a). Recently, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta along with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, announced plans to remove gender-based barriers to service and lift the 1994 Direct Ground Combat Definition and Assignment Rule for female service members (U.S. Department of Defense, 2013a). As women begin this transition into combat occupations, the military is in an optimal position to address many stereotypes and sexist attitudes regarding women’s abilities that could influence behaviors like sexual harassment. Hence, the purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between several variables (i.e., sexist attitudes, attitudes toward women in the military, and tolerance for sexual harassment) and sexual harassment in the military to hopefully determine a point at which intervention can occur to prevent sexual harassment in the future.
Sexual Harassment in the Military: Explaining the Rise in Assaults
Fenn Tower Ballroom
According to a recent U.S. Department of Defense (DoD; 2013b) survey, an estimated 26,000 service members were sexually assaulted in 2012, which is a sharp increase from 19,000 in 2010. Of those active-duty military personnel who responded to the confidential DoD survey, 6.1 percent of women reported they had been sexual assaulted (i.e., a term that included anything from rape to unwanted sexual touching) within the last year. From those numbers the Pentagon estimated that approximately 12,100 of active duty women had been victims of sexual assault in the past year alone (U.S. Department of Defense, 2013b). The question to be answered, then, is what factors are contributing to the rise in sexual assault in the military?
In today’s military, women operate in larger numbers and a greater capacity than ever before. As approximately 15%, or nearly 202,400, of the U.S. military’s active duty personnel, women comprise a small faction of a larger male dominated profession (U.S. Department of Defense, 2013a). Recently, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta along with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, announced plans to remove gender-based barriers to service and lift the 1994 Direct Ground Combat Definition and Assignment Rule for female service members (U.S. Department of Defense, 2013a). As women begin this transition into combat occupations, the military is in an optimal position to address many stereotypes and sexist attitudes regarding women’s abilities that could influence behaviors like sexual harassment. Hence, the purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between several variables (i.e., sexist attitudes, attitudes toward women in the military, and tolerance for sexual harassment) and sexual harassment in the military to hopefully determine a point at which intervention can occur to prevent sexual harassment in the future.
