Lead by Example. Why the Military Is Failing.

Katie Moebes - Security Leadership Program

“You are an abuser of women — that is the ugly truth and I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around, and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth",

wrote Penelope Hegseth, the mother of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, in a 2018 email to her son. The man who is the public face and leader of over two million military personnel has had multiple sexual assault and misconduct allegations/cases, a history of infidelity, and was personally forced out of the military after being flagged as an “insider threat”. America cannot question why the military continues to struggle so greatly with alarmingly high rates of military sexual assault and harassment when the figurehead himself is emblematic of the crisis. The culture of military leadership must change to condemn all sexual misconduct, both formal allegations brought forth and informal harassment labeled as “jokes”, to mitigate the epidemic of sexual assault and harassment in the United States military.

Formal Procedures

Since the War on Terror began in the early 21st century, the Department of Defense (DoD) and Congress have made progress in implementing new formal socialization regulations for all branches. This has included the creation of SAPR (DoD Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office) and GTO (Getting to Outcomes); along with the passing of the Special Victims Counsel in 2013 and the Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act of 2021. These work to make reporting easier and safer for service members along with making preventative training more effective and widespread to expose all service members.

Despite the progress made through these formal top-down procedures, the rates remain rampant. An independent study conducted by Brown University in 2023 found there were 73,695 cases of sexual assault compared to the 29,000 cases the Pentagon predicted. This means that since 9/11, roughly 24% of servicewomen and 1.9% of servicemen have encountered sexual assault in the military. This leaves many service members and civilians asking the same question: Why? Why is it that post 9/11, a servicewoman is more likely to experience sexual violence or assault at the hands of a fellow servicemember than they are to be injured by a enemy combatant. Why does an institution that protects the nation and all its freedoms and values fail to protect its own soldiers within?

Your Words Have Consequences

The answer to this is unfortunately simple and can be seen through the figurehead himself. Formal procedures aren’t effective if they are not taken seriously by the leaders who are to be implementing them. The informal socialization, peer-to-peer, and informal actions/jargon undermine the work of formal processes and can only be changed by leadership addressing the issue internally, and externally disapproving and punishing all misconduct. The training and punishments that are to deter troops from committing these crimes must be legitimized by the commanding ranks at all levels. This, however, has yet to happen; rather, these processes and programs are being attacked by the most grandeur of leaders and commanders.  

Secretary Hegseth wrote an entire section on “The deadly obsession with Women Warriors” in his 2024 book The War on Warriors. In this chapter, he invalidates women's role and belonging in the military based on societal norms, then addresses the policies of the DoD that promote unit cohesion and sexual harassment prevention by saying, "Every unit knows that social justice, transgender, woke training is the top priority”. He then further leads readers to believe that these policies distract and make the military weak. This sentiment, exclaimed by the now Secretary of Defense, is the exact type of attitude that invalidates and undermines the formal procedures listed above. When the man running the Department of Defense himself views Sexual Assault and Harassment prevention and protection as a waste of time and only implemented because of “woke” policy makers, why are we to expect that the military leaders beneath him will take the issue seriously amongst their troops?

They’re Not Just “Woke” Policies

Not protecting service members against sexual harassment and assault not only creates a human security issue for service members, but it also deters many potential recruits from joining the military out of fear for their safety - especially women.  Although in the eyes of Secretary Hegseth the perfect military is male-dominated and not burdened by the “woke” policies that protect service members, the reality remains that the military needs soldiers of all backgrounds. This is true both in a sense of sheer numbers, as recruitment and retention struggles make the military weak, but also in order to combat modern warfare. Women are a critical part of the military in both combat and garrison roles, and without women, the military would be weak. This can be seen by the Army’s utilization of Female Engagement Teams (FETs) and Cultural Support Teams (CSTs) during the Global War on Terror. These combat teams provided crucial intel and guidance that would not have been obtained by a traditional all-male troop.

Studies on unit cohesion show that amongst most minority groups, including women, there were no barriers to unit cohesion and effectiveness unless provoked by leadership. For women specifically, they found the in roles such as combat arms, the sentiment that women are not physically or emotionally qualified did not stand as they are held to the same standards as men. Because of this, the women were and are qualified to do their assigned jobs, and their unit trusts them to do so. 

We've Walked the Walk, Now Talk the Talk

“On behalf of all the women (and I know it’s many) you have abused in some way, I say… get some help and take an honest look at yourself…” (Penelope Hegseth). 

If one piece of advice could be passed down the chain of command to all leaders in the military, it would be exactly that: Get some help and take an honest look at yourself. Taking the formal procedures laid out by the DoD seriously is not a political matter nor an option, and the leaders that take issues with working to stop the crisis of sexual harassment and assault are the real epidemic that plague the military.