Women, military, and sexual assault: Tim Kaine reminds Virginian’s what’s at stake for our future

While millions of Americans watch and listen to NBC’s The Voice, the voice of women in the military who have been sexually assaulted has largely gone unheard until quite recently. Amid the revelations of increasing sexual assaults among members of America’s armed forces (predominantly against women), the Senate Armed Services Committee hauled all six members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff into the Senate chambers to testify at the same time about this alarming problem.

According to a Pentagon study of active-duty uniformed personnel released in June, 1.2% of men and 6.1% of women reported receiving “unwanted sexual contact” in 2012.

Among members of the Senate Armed Services Committee was Virginia’s own Tim Kaine, who outlined the negative consequences he believes rising cases of sexual assault in the armed forces have on the military leadership and society as a whole.

At a recent speech Senator Kaine gave at Mary Baldwin College’s Virginia Women’s Institute of Leadership, Kaine said, “They [Mary Baldwin cadets] were asking me about the sexual assault issue. When someone says ‘I’ll put my life on the line and I will risk death in harm’s way but I won’t risk entering a culture that has allowed this to grow’ – that is a very serious concern. We all want to make sure the best leaders of the future feel like this is a career they can pursue.”

The issue of sexual assault predominantly directed against women is more than just a women’s issue. Sexual assault of any kind is a stain on the fabric of American society that mocks the notion of a fair and equal society and the rule of law. If the laws of our society do not equally apply to everyone, then our society will be that much less legitimate and able to maintain that sense of respect that every well-founded society has experienced throughout human civilization.

To the extent that women do not feel safe in their own society is also the extent to which our economic system deprives itself of immense sources of talent. But more importantly, it’s the extent to which women cannot truly be equal citizens with their male counterparts. I grew up thinking that America stood for progress, but that doesn’t sound like progress to me.