The Need for a Sexual Safety Framework: Deployment-Related Sexual Violence Against U.S. Servicewomen

• In Event: Peace, War, and Social Conflict Panel Session: Gender, Militaries, and Conflict

Abstract

This paper examines the elevated risk of sexual violence experienced by U.S. servicewomen during deployment and the implications of internal military sexual violence for the prevention of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) against civilians. Drawing on qualitative interviews with servicewomen, this study highlights how deployment environments amplify harassment and assault, perpetuated by a culture of warrior masculinity and institutional tolerance for gendered aggression. I show that pre-deployment briefings and informal mentorships warn women of sexual danger on deployment. In deployment settings, women are instructed to rely on hypervigilant individual strategies, such as walking in pairs or living near other women, rather than supported by systemic institutional safeguards. These informal and gendered risk-management practices reflect an organizational awareness of sexual threat that coexists with institutional inaction or dismissal when it occurs. The paper situates these findings within the framework of the United Nations’ Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, emphasizing that militaries’ capacity to protect civilians from CRSV should account for how they address sexual violence within their own ranks. It argues that internal sexual violence is not distinct from conflict-related sexual violence but interconnected through shared environments of militarized aggression. It argues that a systemic lens of sexual safety integrated into leadership, operations, and policies is essential to ensure institutional accountability for sexual violence towards service members and civilians.

Author

• Stephanie Bonnes, University of New Haven