I know almost everyone has heard the infamous “Barbie '' movies monologue about womanhood, and when Actress America Ferrara says “It is literally impossible to be a woman” she isn’t wrong. This is especially true to the women in the United States Military. These women should be seen as some of the most powerful people in the world, as they define the stereotypical gender standards when they join. Gender stereotypes and institutional bias within the military come as no surprise to anyone, least of all, women. Women go into training knowing they are not going to be treated the same as their fellow male officers, as there are standards set in place during testing. For example the Army policy requires women to do only fewer than half the push-ups males are required to do, conveying a message that women are half as capable than men. But one is for sure, these women shouldn’t have to be expecting is to be taken advantage of by their fellow officers sexually. Yet that is the unfortunate reality for about 1 in 3 women veterans according to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs. 

Overall sexual assault and harassment numbers across U.S Military branches point to the problem getting worse. Rates are growing and the precentage of women reporting sexual assault and harrasment is shrinking. Revealing that trust in the U.S Military when it comes to protecting victims of sexual assault is at an all time low. Out of all the branches of the U.S Military the Marine Corps had the largest percentage of women experiencing sexual assault, at 13.4%, the Navy rate was the second largest. These numbers are tragic and extremely disappointing to observe, especially when it means that over 35,000 service members' lives and careers were impacted heavily because of these crimes. These crimes, however, don’t only have just an impact on the individual mentally but they also degrade the departments readiness and ability to conduct missions efficiently. In general the prevalence of sexual abuse in the military is a national security threat. We should not be allowing predators and rapists who are serving in a uniform to keep serving, and instead keep the woman out of her unit. Because that predator is just going to go assault someone else. 

For a Minnesota Army Private Burnham that was just the case. Pvt. Nicole Burnham’s death in January of 2018 started an Army investigation which led to a tangled web of failures by her commanding officers. Pvt. Nicole Burnham was a victim of repeated harassment, sexual assault, and cyber bullying with it all starting by being housed in the same barracks as her attacker at the U.S Army base in South Korea. Pvt. Nicole Burnham’s ranking officers, who were in charge of her safety, are accused of ignoring the harassment, and furthermore ignoring to report her suicidal ideations to the commanders on the base. The investigation ultimately led to the discovery of staff repeatedly violating policies after Pvt. Nicole Burnham reported being sexually assaulted. This investigation led to her family feeling even more frustrated as her suicide could’ve been prevented. Mentally Pvt. Nicole Burnham struggled post sexual assualt, she decided to request a Expedited Victim Transfer which is supposed to allow victims of sexual assualt to be transferred to another base following a credible allegation. She was in a cloud of fear constantly, Nicole states on her transfer that “ I have a fear of running into the offender or people creating rumors on the incident, regardless of where I may go in Korea” (AR 15-6 investigative report) Nicole was paranoid as she felt that the transfer was taking too long. Now for the soldier who attacked Pvt. Nicole Burnham was eventually court - martialed after months of her being harassed with his family agreeing to a plea deal that just resulted in the soldier receiving a less than honorable discharge.

Suicide isn’t new to the U.S Military community, while men in the U.S Military have also had alarmingly high rates of death by suicide, the deaths among women are increasing at a faster rate. Over the past three decades, the Department of Defense and military branches have implimented training programs, support groups, hotlines, and leadership councils all dedicated to the purpose of tackling the issues of suicide and sexual assualt. In 2018, then- Secretary of Defense Gen. James Mattis touched on the topic of suicides following sexual assualt in a department-wide memo on sexual assault awareness and prevention. He wrote “While casualties on the battlefield are understood to be consistent with our military duties, I accept no casulaties due to sexual assault within our ranks”. Yet such casualties keep making returning headlines as these womens reports are swept under the rug. Army PFC. Amy Duerksen, wrote in her diary about being raped and how her chain of command berated her after she reported the abuse, before she commited suicide in 2006. Previously mentioned Pvt. Nicole Burnham who killed herself in 2018 after requesting an expedited transfer following a sexual assault, except she was kept on base in the same baracks as her assilant. Corp. Anne Vassas, a young Marine who had been sexually assaulted three times while serving in uniform before she decided to end her life in 2019. Finally Morgan Robinson who when was deployed in Kuwait was continually sexually harrassed and assualted by one of her superiors, and was then threatened by higher ranking officers after reporting it, leading to a alleged gang rape by other soliders. These are just a few women's stories proving that untreated trauma is deadly. 

The stigma behind reaching out for help has grown worse. Worse still in multiple cases these suicides all occur after these women tried to reach out for help. Many U.S Military units still do not take sexual trauma or mental health as seriously as they should and often times they treat suicide awarness training as a quick exercise. Little active duty U.S Military leaders speak out about their own struggles coping with their trauma, those who do often face derailed careers. This is something that discourages Jr. troops from speaking up and seeking help for themselves. In the long run, it is only genuine, supportive human connections with other service members, who believe and understand these victims that will save them from feeling that there is no way out.