United Kingdom : Following on from a 2015 Sexual Harassment Survey, the British army repeated the survey in 2018 to assess improvements in army culture and behaviour. Although the results showed that there had been an improvement in behaviours since the 2015 survey, it also reported that unwanted sexualised behaviours remain a common experience for many service personnel.
In the UK, an official report on sexual harassment in the British army found that almost half of personnel who had an ‘upsetting’ experience of sexual harassment did not complain for fear of an impact on their career.
For more details see the Survey and the subsequent Report which was published on the basis of the survey findings:
Army sexual harassment report and action plan 2018 – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
United States of America : In 2019, there were 2,684 reports of sexual assault made by service members in the Army. In the Navy during that same time period, the number was 1,676. In total, there were 7,825 reports of sexual assault in all branches of the military, representing a 3% increase in the number of reports filed by or about military members during 2019. However, in a survey of active duty service members in 2018, approximately 119,000 individuals reported experiencing sexual harassment in the previous 12 months.
In the USA researchers recommended that the Army tailor prevention efforts to address the most common sexual harassment and gender discrimination behaviours and scenarios Soldiers might encounter. They also recommend that prevention efforts focus on the workplace, during duty hours, as the most common environment for the most serious sexual harassment and gender discrimination events.
Some of the key findings of the research conducted were that In their most serious experiences both male and female Soldiers typically experience repeated sexual jokes and offensive or persistent discussions of sex and that nearly half (48 percent) of female Soldiers indicated that at least one of the alleged perpetrators was either their supervisor or someone in their chain of command. In addition male Soldiers most commonly experience insults to their masculinity, sexual orientation, or gender expression
If you are a current or former member of the Irish Defence Forces and have been subjected to any form of sexual harassment please contact 045-432382 for further legal advice.