Sir Humphrey on the House of Commons report on the treatment of women in the Armed Forces. And no, despite the start, it does not just apply to the Army, it also applies to the RN and RAF.
The article, and paper, should be read in full, and with shame.
https://tinyurl.com/3bus3khs
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A Failure of Values, Standards and Leadership at All Levels
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The British Army has six core values, which set out how a British soldier should act and conduct themselves. These values include:
·
COURAGE - Doing and saying the right thing not the easy thing
· DISCIPLINE - Doing things properly and setting the right example
· RESPECT FOR OTHERS- Treat others as you expect to be treated
· INTEGRITY - Being honest with yourself and your teammates
· LOYALTY - Support the army and your teammates
SELFLESS COMMITMENT - Mates and mission first, me second
These are laudable values, and mirrored in the other two services in similar documents. They are rightly seen as a good ‘handrail’ to which all soldiers and professional military personnel should aspire to conduct themselves at all times.Given this, when you read a report that talks of serving female personnel describing incidents like:
“Repeated sexual advances and unwanted attention from seniors”
“Bullying for refusing sexual advances”
“Filming and sharing images, including while in the showers”
“ Ejaculation into their pocket”
“Messes and mess accommodation being viewed as places of danger, with one servicewoman saying that they could be more dangerous for servicewomen than being deployed on overseas operations”
Bullying or downgraded performance assessment if servicewomen made attempts to report unacceptable behaviours
Then you realise that there is a very serious mismatch between aspiration and lived reality.
The publication of the
House of Commons Defence Sub Committee report into the experience of women in the armed forces is both utterly vital, and absolutely appalling. It is hard to find words to describe the anger the author felt reading some of the accounts of women in the armed forces, and in particular the appalling experiences they have experienced.
What makes this report so significant is that permission was given, exceptionally, for women serving in the military to give evidence to the Committee. Roughly 10% of all serving female personnel responded to this report, which gives it significant credibility.
This report should be mandatory reading, in full, for everyone in the chain of command, in the vain hope that it will be seen, read, acted on and positive changes made for the better.
Sadly, one has to worry that it will instead be parked in a cul-de-sac marked “Irritating millennial wokeness” and given a stiff ignoring by a generation of people who want to go back to dreaming of manly wars fought by manly men (possibly even from a armoured vehicle that is less than 30 years old)……