Sexual Harassment in the Army

How sexual harassment can impact Army operations
As an American organization, the armed forces face many of the same distinct challenges that are prevalent within society overall. Issues related to leadership diversity, wages, benefits, and sexual harassment are all prevalent within the military. The United States armed forces is a collection of distinguished and honorable personnel. The constituents within each unit vary regarding socio-economic backgrounds, race, religion, and culture. It is this diversity that provides a competitive advantage for our country as it relates to defending its territory. The ability to leverage and utilize a diverse skill set allows innovative ideas to rise to the forefront. This is particularly important as cyber security, chemical, and nuclear threats become more prevalent. Although the military has expanding its diversity initiative in recent years, a large proportion of the military is comprised of men. According to the Defense Department, women now make up 20 percent of the Air Force, 19 percent of the Navy, 15 percent of the Army and almost 9 percent of the Marine Corp. As a result, a male dominated environment could potentially lead to sexual harassment, both intentional and unintentional. As more women enter the armed forces, it is therefore imperative to properly train individuals on the implications of sexual harassment. A unit must act in a cohesive fashion. The military is very coordinated and therefore required the attention of all members involved. As more women enter the military, all individuals must be mindful of how sexual harassment can impact the mental psyche of an individual. This is important as sexual harassment can directly and indirectly impact military readiness. For example, a victim of sexual harassment may be unable to perform a mission critical task due to prior incidents. This can ultimately impact the success of the job and at an extreme level, cost the lives of others. A properly training protocol, plan and remediation plan is therefore needed to mitigate the negative consequences of sexual harassment in the military (Department of the Army, 2012).
To begin, sexual harassment and sexual assault are violations of the military’s core values and should be punished heavily. Unfortunately, sexual harassment has occurred all too frequently within the military. According to the 2018 Workplace and Gender Relations Survey of Active Duty Members, roughly 6.0% of men and over 24% of women reported experiencing incidents of sexual harassment across the Department of Defense within the preceding 12 months. This is an astounding number as nearly 1 in 4 women have experience some form of harassment. To create an environment of dignity and respect that supports the United States Army's Sexual Harassment/Assault & Prevention policy, leaders must first emphasize it. Without the approval and subsequent enforcement of leaders, the policy will become ignored be subordinates. Leaders must showcase their belief in the policy by first learning and understanding it. Here, leaders must understand what constitutes sexual harassment and policies in place to report it (Sadler, 2018). Once report, leaders must also be swift with their action and overall punishments if necessary. All subordinates must understand that the leaders within the organization take the policy seriously and will enforce it to best of their ability. Leaders must be the force that initiates a change in culture by clearly defining sexual harassment, communicating it openly and effectively, and be modeling appropriate behaviors (Malamuth,1996).
Unfortunately, leadership can not police all activities that occur within the military. As a result, sexual harassment and assault will occur even if strong leadership is engaged and informed. To better create an environment of dignity and respect that supports the United States Army's Sexual Harassment/Assault & Prevention policy, other measure must be utilized to reduce the overall occurrence. Here, the department of defense should utilize a social-ecological model to contextualize the factors influencing violence, and outline how those factors put people at risk. The model can also be used to help protect individuals from experiencing or perpetrating violence. Here, the model can be used to illustrates and describes the interactions between individuals, their immediate social networks, and surrounding community. This is critically important, as the armed forces needs to understand how these interactions are occurred and what the corresponding risk factors are. As noted above nearly a quarter of all women in the military have experience some form of sexual harassment. This indicates that the current structure as it exists today is inadequate a protecting female victim from sexual harassment. By identifying how individuals interact within a unit, the military will be better informed as to what risk factor contribute to eventual sexual harassment. By lowers the occurrence of these risk factors, the military can also lower the occurrence of sexual harassment within the military.
Finally, once leaders are heavily engaged in the oversight of sexual harassment, and appropriate risk factors are identified, the military must then create an infrastructure to support on-going efforts to continually lower the occurrence of sexual harassment. Here, the military must prevention infrastructure that is both diversified and effective. Here the military will first have policies, that will be overseen by leadership as discussed in the opening paragraph. Here, the military will need to used directives, strategic guidance, and unit level policies and procedures to clearly articulate its stance towards sexual harassment. Next, the infrastructure should include programs designed to train, educate, and development all members within the military, including leadership. This training will include new member orientations along with intervention skills training. After the program infrastructure is in place, the military should then bolster its human resources infrastructure. This is critical as allows trained professions to police and discipline those who have engaged in sexual harassment. It also, allows victims, to have an adequate department to voice their concerns without fear of punishment. With these elements securely in place the military can properly create an environment that supports the United States Army's Sexual Harassment/Assault & Prevention policy
References:
1. Department of the Army. (2012a). Army leadership (ADP 6-22). Retrieved from https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/pdf/web/adp6_22.pdf
2. Malamuth, N.M., Heavey, C.L., & Linz, D. (1996). The confluence model of sexual aggression: Combining hostile masculinity and impersonal sex. Sex Offender Treatment, 13-37
3. Sadler, A.G., et al. (2018) The impact of leadership on sexual harassment and sexual assault in the military. Military Psychology, 30:3, 252-263