In Search of the Arc The Path to Justice for Women in the Military

Abstract

Over the past two decades, the epidemic of sexual assault (assault, rape, and harassment) in the U.S. military has garnered increasing media and legislative attention. While activists and survivors have achieved some successes in achieving the passage of stronger policies that address military sexual assault, many of those changes are recent, and much work remains to be done. This paper examines the growth of a social movement over 22 years and seeks to determine how the social movement against military sexual assault contributed to the Department of Defense’s shift from promises to action. I challenge social workers to examine their responsibility to groups whose voice has been silenced or stolen by trauma.