Despite numerous of sexual assault coming out of the military, women are still applying at steady rates helping different branches of the military to meet their quota.

Politico reported that the number of enlisted women is steady at 15 percent.

Yesterday, NY Times reported the reports of sexual assault in the military increased.

If stories about sexual assault in the military are being made aware to the public, why hasn’t the number of women recruits declining?

The advertising of military life to women do not talk or mention sexual assault, it focuses on a woman who is strong fighting for her country. While the message is nice it leaves a lot to be desired.
Recruiters will tell women about sexual assault in the military if they ask, but more focus is put on telling the women about the resources offered to victims of assault.

There have been stories and documentaries on women who have victimized in the military by their “brothers” in arms. It’s not the just in the military issues of sexual assault takes place it can happen by those recruiting for the military.

Jeffrey Krusinski an officer in the Air Force who led the Sexual Assault Prevent and Response unit was arrested and charged for groping a woman in a parking lot and received bruises by the woman for doing so, reported Huffington Post.

If the officer that heads a Sexual Assault Prevention and Response unit can engage in such behavior than how is the military going to prevent sexual assault from happening. There does not seem to be a rush to truly prevent sexual assault; unfortunately the reality for women and parents of young girls wanting to go into the military is that there is no guarantee.

“If you’re the parent of a 17-year-old high school graduate, you’d have to think long and hard about whether you wanted her to go into the service until this problem is under control,” said Sen. Susan Collins.

Even Sen. John McCain expressed a similar sentiment June of this year, “Just last night, a woman came to me and said her daughter wanted to join the military and could I give my unqualified support for her doing so. I could not… I cannot overstate my disgust and disappointment over continued reports of sexual misconduct in our military. We’ve been talking about this issue for years and talk is insufficient,” reported NBC News.

While the issue of sexual assault may not affect the quota for the military now, it may do so in the future due to the way the Pentagon appears to be dragging their feet on the issue. If a woman is going to be fighting for her country she shouldn’t have to worry about enemies across the sea and enemies less than five feet away from her.

If the issue of sexual assault has been well documented for over a decade, why haven’t there been any rules to discharge those that engage in this behavior regardless of their rank?

It’s an unfortunate truth that, while not every woman in the military has been sexually assaulted, the risk of it happening still exists.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.