Angelique Vasquez. Professor Scala. Wgs 4100 . April 18Th,

Angelique Vasquez Professor Scala WGS 4100 April 18th, 2017 The Untold Stories of Women at War Joining the military is a commitment sold as a beneficial lifestyle. However, there is an unspoken truth about women joining the military. Hiding behind fluff, are women’s stories about the sexual violence during their time in the force and the mistreatment they received for reporting the assaults. What needs to happen: give some consideration to the type (and history) of men being recruited; take away the investigative powers from the immediate commander; send reports to an independent, impartial system for adjudication; prosecute perpetrators to the fullest extent of the law, and treat these crimes with the same seriousness afforded to†¦show more content†¦I had no idea what I was about to witness while watching this documentary about rape in the military, but I was not prepared for the full story The Invisible War presents. The documentary outlines some of the hard facts: 20% of service women have been sexually assaulted while serving. Women who have suffered what they call ‘Military Sexual Trauma’ have a higher rate of PTSD than men who’ve served in combat. 1% of service men have been sexually assaulted (and because of the greater number of men in the military, more men are raped/sexually assaulted than women). There’s a 4% conviction rate of the reported assaults. The Department of Defense says that 3,158 incidents of sexual assault were reported in 2010, yet they estimate that 86% of incidents are not reported; that math gets us to 22,548 sexual assaults in one year. Invisible War says that it’s possible half a million women have been sexually assaulted in uniform since 1991. The film does a brilliant job of showing and focusing on the personal stories of several survivors (including a few men). Additionally, it shows how sexual assault is an epidemic, by inserting Department of Defense’s own statistical findings and interviews with experts, criminal investigators and psychologists. It builds up to the