Identity Work of U.S. Servicewomen: Barriers to Reporting Sexual Abuse and Opportunities to Challenge Sexism

• In Event: Sexual Assault Victimization

Abstract

Using in-depth interviews with 40 servicewomen, I identify a barrier to sexual abuse reporting not mentioned in the extant literature: the complication of military women’s performances of masculinity combined with surviving sexual abuse. This is most pronounced in identity narratives regarding how individuals think of themselves as victims (or not). I demonstrate how individual experience with trauma can change women's responses to institutional narratives. I demonstrate how rape victims reject military narratives and interactions while women who have faced combat use these experiences to negotiate with the institution's narratives and in interaction to challenge sexism in the military workplace.

Author

• Stephanie Bonnes, University of Colorado, Boudler