Everyday Sexism in the Military (and other uniformed orgs)

[Brefugee]

Couldn't think of a really snappy title but don't want to completely further derail the Caroline F thread with all this.

We started a side chat about our military days. I'm going to completely repost my first big one on that, because some of us don't want to wade through that long thread (for various reasons).

@Brefugee and @ifIwerenotanandroid From personal experience, I respectfully disagree.

I joined just as you were leaving @Brefugee and thankfully didn’t have it as bad as you seem to have had it - I won’t deny that sexism and misogyny were there right from the start, but I’m glad that there were also plenty of men and women who didn’t put up with that shit.

I think the Army turned me into far more of a gobshite than I intended, but my military life improved when I went on the offensive. I definitely had to work harder than my male compatriots to earn their grudging respect, which still pisses me off even now.

Things had definitely improved by the time I left (I did the full 22 and then some) but I have discouraged my DD from following in my footsteps as I can see she’s not as robust as she’d need to be, even now.

One of the reason s I left was bei g sick of havi g to be better. The words I used were "running to stand still"

You disagree that itvs still sexist? Is it also not still racist?

Did you watch the interview? And are you willing to tell us what your experience is?

I was all ready to join the navy after university. But whilst there met an army engineer doing her degree. Her extremely casual recounting of being raped by a more senior officer (she was a second lieutenant) left me absolutely cold. I just couldn’t believe she hadn’t reported it. Another engineer, also second lieutenant, and her (male) friend who was a captain were sitting next to her and just nodded along. Career ending she reckoned, to report it. Put me right off the forces.

That was in 2004, the rape was the year before.