Is The Military Finally Going To Do Something About The Sexual Harassment Of Soldiers?

From horrifying stories of contractors raped in Iraq to the seeming near-daily stories of disappearing female soldiers, it's begun to feel — even to the military brass — like there just might be something in need of fixing right now. It probably doesn't help that about 80 percent of female soldiers on average (90 among female Marines) complain of unwanted sexual touching. So, from setting up a sexual assault ward to making assault reports anonymous to working with the nonprofit Men Can Stop Rape to enlist the male members of the armed forces in helping the problem, the military is at least trying to do something.

Of course, it comes a little late for some women (as it always does), but when the problem in the military is only a microcosm of the problem in the society, the military isn't going to do any better at stopping it tomorrow than the rest of us will.
Female Soldiers Cite Sexual Assaults [MSNBC]

UPDATED: Beloved Jezebel commenter and amateur statistician Abby points out that the actual report (the 2006 Gender Relations Survey of Active Duty Members, currently slightly besieged by server requests) says that, according to Abby, "6.8% of active duty military women reported unwanted sexual contact — and of that 6.8%, 78% reported unwanted sexual touching. Meaning: the percentage of women who reported unwanted sexual touching was actually... a bit over 5%." It's still not good, but it's better than MSNBC would have — and did have — us believe.

Send an email to Megan Carpentier, the author of this post, at askalobbyist@gmail.com.

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