Women in national security field demand reforms to decrease sexual misconduct

More than 200 women in the national security field are calling for reforms to decrease sexual misconduct. 

The women want the addition of employee training and changes to how sexual harassment and assault are reported in the workplace.

“We, too, are survivors of sexual harassment, assault, and abuse or know others who are,” they write in an open letter to the industry obtained by The Hill. 

{mosads}It is signed by former diplomats, former Defense Department officials, academics, and think tank employees.

They argue, for example, that while women are hired by government agencies in numbers equal to men, they fail to move up in the ranks as often.

The letter, which includes the hashtag “#metoonatsec” at the top, says sexual misconduct protocols within the national security industry “are weak, under enforced, and can favor perpetrators.”

“Many women are held back or driven from this field by men who use their power to assault at one end of the spectrum and perpetuate-sometimes unconsciously-environments that silence, demean, belittle or neglect women at the other,” the letter reads.

“Assault is the progression of the same behaviors that permit us to be denigrated, interrupted, shut out, and shut up. These behaviors incubate a permissive environment where sexual harassment and assault take hold.”

Women across the country have come forward in recent weeks accusing men in powerful positions of sexual misconduct ranging from unwanted sexual advances to assault.

The accusations have roiled Hollywood, Washington, D.C. and the technology sector.

Both Republican and Democratic politicians, including Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), Rep. John Conyers Jr. (R-Mich.) and Alabama Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore, have been accused of varying degrees of sexual misconduct.