Around two-thirds of women in the armed forces experienced sexualised behaviour – from wolf-whistles and dirty jokes to touching and unwanted sexual activity – in the past 12 months, a damning internal survey has revealed.
About one-third of servicemen also suffered such treatment.
Louise Sandher-Jones, a junior defence minister and former army officer, said the results were “wholly unacceptable”.
She said the survey was the first of its kind and called it a “no holds barred baseline to fully confront and address the root causes of this issue”.
Headline findings from the Armed Forces Sexualised Behaviours and Sexual Harassment survey – published on Thursday – include:
• 67% of women experienced at least one sexualised behaviour in the last 12 months, compared to 34% of men
• 32% of women were “touched in a way that made [them] feel uncomfortable”, compared with 5% of men
• 8% of women were “subjected to sexual activity which [they] did not consent to, compared with 1% of men
• 58% of women and 25% of men experienced “jokes or comments of a sexual nature”
• 24% of women experienced “cat calling, wolf whistling or other provocative sounds”, compared with 2% for men
The survey discovered that the majority of these instances – 76% – happened either at work, at military accommodation, or a training facility.
As for the number of perpetrators, 45% of those who had experienced sexualised behaviours said it came from between two to three individuals.
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Some 6% of those surveyed said the sexualised behaviours they experienced had come from more than 10 perpetrators.
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Exposure to such bad behaviour prompted almost one third of women – 29% – to consider leaving the military, while 58% said they have lost respect for the people involved.
In terms of where the sexualised behaviour was most prevalent, the survey found that it affected 69% of women in the Royal Navy and the army, and 63% of women in the Royal Air Force.
Some 38% of men in the RAF and the navy experienced such behaviour, and 30% in the army.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Rich Knighton, the head of the armed forces, said they revealed the military has “much more” to do to “stamp out behaviour which has no place in the armed forces”.
Previously, as head of the RAF, he had made a similar pledge and yet men and women across defence are continuing to suffer abuse.
Louise Sandher-Jones, the minister for veterans and people, said: “New standards in transparency and accountability are being set across our Armed Forces.
“As a veteran myself, this mission is deeply personal to me, and I want our military to be the best in class on this issue. Ministers and Chiefs are working closely together to play our part in the Government’s central mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade.”
