Sexual harassment is leaving female soldiers in physical pain

The findings show that just over 22 per cent say they have been sexually harassed, five per cent recall having been sexually assaulted and nearly 28 per cent say they have experienced emotional bullying - Leon Neal/Getty Images
The findings show that just over 22 per cent say they have been sexually harassed, five per cent recall having been sexually assaulted and nearly 28 per cent say they have experienced emotional bullying - Leon Neal/Getty Images

Female soldiers who are subjected to sexual harassment suffer physical pain as a result of the mental distress caused by the abuse, a new study has found.

The report, published in the BMJ Military Health journal, discovered that younger women who held the rank of officer or had a combat or combat support role were the most likely to have suffered emotional bullying, sexual harassment and physical assault.

The study, which surveyed 750 female veterans, is one of the first to demonstrate that military sexual harassment can result in physical somatisation, where mental distress causes physical symptoms such as pain or fatigue.

Meanwhile, sexual assault was significantly associated with alcohol problems, and emotional bullying was significantly associated with anxiety and depression, low social support and loneliness.

The findings showed that just over 22 per cent said they had been sexually harassed, five per cent recalled having been sexually assaulted and nearly 28 per cent said they had experienced emotional bullying. A further three percent said they had been physically assaulted.

The authors cautioned that the majority of the women who took part in the study were aged above 60, so the findings may not be generalisable to younger army personnel.

However, the authors concluded that their study provided evidence of a high prevalence of military adversity among UK women veterans.

Greater support required

They called on the Armed Forces to provide greater support to military women, as they said that many do not report adverse service experiences due to fear of consequences, and may continue to suffer from increased mental health distress during and after military service.

The authors suggested that it could be worth considering whether organisational and leadership changes could be made to better protect military women, as “the nature of military training and the ranked order structure may put female personnel at greater risk of victimisation”.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: “We are committed to improving the experience for women in the Armed Forces in every area of their lives and do not tolerate abuse, bullying, harassment or discrimination.”

They added that a “range of steps” had been taken to improve the female experience within the military and that “all allegations are taken very seriously with unlawful behaviour investigated by the relevant police service as necessary”.