Joseph Nye
CNN Global Public Square
February 8, 2012

Would the world be more peaceful if women were in charge? A challenging new book by the Harvard University psychologist Steven Pinker says that the answer is “yes.”

In The Better Angels of Our Nature, Pinker presents data showing that human violence, while still very much with us today, has been gradually declining. Moreover, he says, “over the long sweep of history, women have been and will be a pacifying force. Traditional war is a man’s game: tribal women never band together to raid neighboring villages.” As mothers, women have evolutionary incentives to maintain peaceful conditions in which to nurture their offspring and ensure that their genes survive into the next generation.

Skeptics immediately reply that women have not made war simply because they have rarely been in power. If they were empowered as leaders, the conditions of an anarchic world would force them to make the same bellicose decisions that men do. Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir, and Indira Gandhi were powerful women; all of them led their countries to war.

But it is also true that these women rose to leadership by playing according to the political rules of “a man’s world.” It was their success in conforming to male values that enabled their rise to leadership in the first place. In a world in which women held a proportionate share (one-half) of leadership positions, they might behave differently in power.

To read the full article at CNN.com, click here.

Lauren Wolfe
The Atlantic
February 8, 2012

It doesn’t matter where you look; sexualized violence is intrinsic to conflict. Qaddafi’s soldiers committed rape in the last days of Libya’s regime. The Egyptian military has been sexually violating female journalists and protesters in that revolution. Across the Democratic Republic of Congo, hundreds of thousands of women are suffering the fallout of the sexualized violence that has torn apart their bodies, their families, and their communities.

A new project from the Women’s Media Center, initiated by one of its founders, journalist and activist Gloria Steinem, has begun documenting this tool of war and genocide. From the Holocaust through today, Women Under Siege is illuminating the causes as well as the cures of sexualized violence by uncovering patterns and making links between them.

As the director of Women Under Siege, as well as a journalist myself, I interviewed Steinem about sexualized violence in conflict and what needs to be done to understand and stop it.

To read the full interview at theAtlantic.com, click here.

Rep. Jackie Speier
Special to CNN.com
February 7, 2012

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has announced new initiatives to curtail what he calls “the epidemic” of rape and sexual assaults in our armed forces. In 2010, an estimated 19,000 service members were raped or sexually assaulted by other service members. Clearly, more resources devoted to counseling for victims and training for prosecutors and judges will help.

But the incidence of unpunished rapes will continue and so will the damaging effects these illegal acts have on troop morale and preparedness. This epidemic requires an overhaul of the military justice system.

To read Rep. Speier’s  opinion piece at CNN.com, click here.

Diane A Wade
Belle News
January 8, 2012

Sahar Gul, a teenage bride from Afghanistan, who was tortured for months after her arranged marriage, has spoken out for the first time since her rescue, saying she hopes her husband and his family are jailed for her abuse.

15-year-old Sahar Gul became the bruised and bloodied face of women’s rights in Afghanistan after she was rescued in late December when an uncle called police.

Speaking in an interview on Saturday from a hospital in Kabul, Sahar Gul blamed her husband, his parents and his sister for her ordeal.

To read the full story at bellenews.com, click here.

Warning: Graphic Images

H. Patricia Hynes
Truthout
January 10, 2012

(Image: Jared Rodriguez / Truthout)

The first decade of the 21st century was a record one for women serving in the US military: Women constituted 14 percent of all active duty military (over 200,000), with one in ten serving in the Middle East and 17 percent in the National Guard. Women soldiers in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, though barred from ground combat, have worked in as dangerous situations as men. These same women have found themselves, concurrently, the target of sexual assault by “brothers in arms” at nearly twice the rate of US society. Military sexual trauma is so severe that it is more likely to cause post-traumatic stress disorder in women than combat trauma and civilian sexual trauma – because of military culture.

In this series, “The Battlefield and the Barracks: Two War Fronts for Women Soldiers,” we will probe the magnitude of sexual assault and harassment of women in the military. What is it about military culture that results in such extreme sexual crime? Why is sexual assault so traumatizing for women soldiers? What are the responses of the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration to the epidemic of sexual crime in their midst, with its multiple health consequences? And what are the radical changes necessary to reform a recalcitrant military?

To read the full article at Truthout, click here.

It Only Takes a Girl

Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-San Francisco, San Mateo) introduced legislation on November 16, 2011 to dramatically reform how sexual assaults and rape in the military are treated (download bill summary.) Speier stated, “For too long the military’s response to rape victims has been: ‘take an aspirin and go to bed.’ We owe our brave women and men in the military a justice system that protects them, not punishes them when they become victims of sexual assaults and rape committed by other service members.”

“To end this needless injustice, I am proposing a legislative remedy and fully endorsing the website, Protect Our Defenders, which will provide the grass roots mechanics required to make our military leaders and Congress understand that what has been going on before their very eyes for decades is unconscionable and must be stopped. We owe our brave women and men in the military a justice process that protects them, not punishes them when they become victims of sexual assaults and rape.”

To visit the web site of Protect Our Defenders, click here.

And consider signing their petition demanding that Congress create a NEW method for reporting sexual assault in the military.

Congresswoman Speier has made over a dozen speeches to Congress on the topic of rape and sexual assault in the military, to view them on her web site, click here. Or view the videos on usmvaw.com, here.

Helen Benedict has written a piece on the STOP Act and why it matters at the Ms. Blog. To read it, click here.

For a look at the media reports on The Sexual Assault Training Oversight and Prevention Act — the  STOP Act, click the links below:

Sexual Assault in the Military: New Legislation Seeks to Alter Reporting Process,  ABC News,  November 17, 2011

Lawmaker Wants Military Rape Cases Shifted to New Office, Miami Herald, November 18, 2011

A Crisis in Our Military, Rep. Jackie Speier, Huffington Post,  November 17. 2011

Legislation Aims to Remove Rape Accusations from Military ‘Chain of Command,’   The Daily Caller,   November 18, 2011

Rep. Speier Wants New Office to Investigate Military Sexual Assaults, The Hill, November 17, 2011

Democrat Jackie Speier Introduces Military Rape Bill,  89.3 KPPC,   November 17, 2011

Congresswoman Jackie Speier gave her 12th floor speech on military rape and sexual assault today. She talked about Col. Michael Robertson who was convicted of 14 charges. His punishment? A $30,000 fine and 3 months in jail. He’ll be allowed to retire with full rank and benefits, but won’t be required to register as a sex offender. Indefensible!

On Thursday, November 17, 2011, Speier will introduce legislation and announce a campaign to combat sexual violence in the military. She will hold a press conference at 9:45 am ET at the National Press Club in Washington DC with Nancy Parish, President of Protect Our Defenders, and military rape victims.

For more information on the November 17th press conference, click here.

Alternet.org
November 8, 2011

The following is an excerpt from Hearts on Fire: Twelve Stories of Today’s Visionaries Igniting Idealism Into Action by Jill Iscol with Peter Cookson, available now from booksellers and at your local library.

Violence against women is a complex set of destructive, primarily male behaviors that include psychological and emotional abuse, forced marriage, son preference, honor killings, sexual harassment, trafficking, and violence against women in armed conflict.

Jimmie Briggs is the founder of the Man Up Campaign, a global initiative to stop violence against girls and women. He didn’t start life expecting he would dedicate himself to mobilizing the world’s youth in the cause of basic justice for girls and women.

But that’s what he did. And this is his story.

To read more about Jimmie Briggs’ story at the Alternet.org web site, click here.

To learn more about the Man Up Campaign, click here.

Chris Roberts
El Paso Times
November 9, 2011

A colonel described by friendly witnesses as “old Army” listened during his court-martial on Tuesday as women testified he had sexually harassed them in 2010 while commanding a combat hospital in Afghanistan.

Col. Michael Robertson commanded Fort Bliss’ 31st Combat Support Hospital at Camp Dwyer, a military base and airfield in the Helmand River Valley used by U.S. Marines. It was described as austere, with tent structures, cots for beds and latrine toilets. The hospital, which was built by the unit’s soldiers, is credited with saving numerous lives, because it is close to an area known for persistent and intense fighting.

To read the full story at the Las Cruces Sun-News web site, click here.