Stop Treating Female Service Members as Victims

Last Monday, in honor of Memorial Day, the New York Times ran a detailed article about depression and suicide among female service members. It made a strong case that military service is exceedingly difficult for women: 38 percent of female soldiers experience depressive symptoms following a deployment (as opposed to 32 percent of men); female soldiers also have a significantly higher post-deployment suicide rate than male soldiers. The reporter, Benedict Carey, and the psychiatrists he quotes, attribute these worrisome trends to the social isolation and lack of camaraderie female soldiers feel when working in predominantly male units. Carey describes a litany of other challenges faced by military women, from sexual harassment and assault to an inability to socialize for fear of starting rumors of romantic relationships.

The article centers on Lt. Courtney Wilson, an Army engineer who deployed to Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011 and who experienced extreme psychic distress as a result of feeling isolated and mocked by her male comrades. Wilson, whom he paints as a high-achieving and somewhat self-critical personality, had difficulty integrating into a unit that she felt did not fully accept women; that lack of acceptance led her to develop an eating disorder, anxiety attacks, and even thoughts of suicide.

The problems highlighted in the article are, of course, very real, and no one has the right to discount Wilson’s experience. But the article is just one of a stream of similar pieces that feed into a widely prevalent, largely inaccurate, and ultimately damaging narrative: Female soldiers are helpless victims, suffering at the mercy of those (read: men) more powerful than they are.

This one-dimensional approach, part and parcel with an abundance of reporting on the (also very real) issue of sexual assault in the military, obscures a central aspect of women’s service: These are soldiers and survivors, and the majority are thriving both on deployment and at home. They deserve to be treated as agents in their own lives and careers, rather than passive victims of a system in which a great many are not only succeeding, but rising to the top.

Women who have had more positive experiences in the military often voice their frustration with the constant portrayal of female soldiers as victims. Katlyn, an Army officer who was one of the first women to deploy with an infantry battalion in Afghanistan, recently told me, “I was treated really well and the way that the media is treating this makes the women look really weak.” (As a side note, these sorts of portrayals aren’t exactly flattering toward military men either, who are often made to look uniformly like misogynists with no self-control or respect for fellow soldiers.)

The New York Times article, and documentaries like 2012’s Invisible War, which portrayed in heartbreaking detail the previously under-documented problem of sexual assault in military services, tell distressing stories of female soldiers who have, in fact, faced systematic barriers in the military, whether through male soldiers’ unwillingness to accept them or the military justice system’s questionable approach to prosecuting sexual assault cases, among other failings. And they have rightly raised awareness of issues that some military women (and men) face.

To be clear, there is no doubt that there are significant challenges to being a female in any male-dominated environment, from professional sports to Wall Street — and that these challenges are magnified when that environment happens to be in the middle of a war zone. In the course of my research, which includes dozens of detailed interviews with women across the military, the challenge most female service members cite, and to which the New York Times article refers, is the feeling that women need to prove themselves at a much higher level than their male counterparts just to earn basic respect and a legitimate place on the team — a requirement presumably born from the long-held contention, still prevalent among a portion of civilian and military leaders, that women simply are not good at war and do not belong there. (Yes, even in 2015: While few leaders believe women shouldn’t serve at all, whether women should serve in combat is still widely debated.)

None of the women I’ve interviewed speak of these expectations fondly. (One did feel the excessively high standards had a positive impact, though. “That kind of mentality kind of helps me,” she said, by pushing her to work harder to prove herself.) But nor did any of them say it had driven them to depression and despair, the way it appeared to for Wilson. The double standard was an annoyance — but something to be overcome.

In fact, I would posit that for every Wilson, who felt isolated and unaccepted, there is a woman (or two) like Nicole, an Army officer I interviewed last year who told me in no uncertain terms, “I never felt like I was treated a certain way because I was a girl.” Many others told me they always felt they were part of the team, and that any gender-related tensions were quickly overcome by a slight adjustment in behavior or a quick reprimand from the leadership.

Some women even found their gender to be an advantage: It gave them greater access to locals, who viewed them as less threatening than male soldiers, among other benefits. Jen, an Army officer who served as part of Cultural Support Team in Kandahar, told me, “Having females out there on the ground is really beneficial. There were a few missions where I was able to go out and meet with all of the women. Especially if they needed medical care.”

In addition to the cultural challenges which, while perhaps overstated, certainly exist, the issue that gets the most attention with regard to female soldiers is undoubtedly sexual assault, a problem that is unacceptably common in some — though far from all — parts of the military. But the notion that the military is rampant with unchecked assaults is largely misplaced; data suggests the rates of sexual assault in the military are roughly equivalent to, or perhaps even lower than, those in civilian colleges (not a scenario to emulate, to be sure). Concern about servicewomen not reporting sexual assault also seems somewhat overblown: The percentage of military assault survivors who report their attacks is believed to be around 25 percent as of 2014, compared to an estimated 20 percent of college survivors.

In the wake of heightened concern about the issue, largely as a result of Invisible War’s release, the Department of Defense has made concerted efforts to reduce incidents of assault and increase reporting rates, and appears to have had some success on both fronts. In 2014, the Defense Department told Congress that reporting rates were going up, presumably the result of greater awareness and a moderately improved prosecutorial process, while the actual incidents of sexual assault appeared — thankfully — to be going down. Undoubtedly, more work will need to be done.

Again, the risk of sexual assault is real. However, many military women have refused to approach these threats as passive victims. In my own research, I’ve found a range of opinions on the prevalence of sexual assault, from women who carried a knife with them when visiting the latrine to those who never saw anything even resembling assault or harassment, and never knew anyone who had. Some have voiced strong resentment of the military’s trainings and other sexual assault prevention measures, claiming they actually widen the gap between male and female soldiers and condescend to otherwise self-reliant and strong individuals.

In a recent open letter in response to her annual Sexual Assault Response Coordinator Training (SARC), a female Air Force member writing under a pseudonym claimed the SARC session turned her into “a sensitive, defenseless woman who has no power to protect herself, who has nothing in common with the men she works with.” In her mind, it was the efforts to keep men and women separate and to avoid any opportunity for misbehavior that was keeping women from fulfilling their potential as soldiers.

In the last 15 years (not to mention hundreds of years of earlier warfare), countless women have proved their worth and become fully integrated parts of their units, supporting their fellow soldiers and fighting valiantly. There are 201,400 women on active duty in the United States military today — including 60 flag officers — 9,200 of whom are currently deployed, and their experiences vary from the traumatic to the life-affirming. Sexual assault and discrimination, not to mention issues with health services and child care, are real and seriously degrade women’s ability to serve their country as best they can. But to paint female service members as victims first and soldiers second is a disservice to them, the institutions in which they serve, and the male soldiers alongside whom they fight.

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