Sir, You report (June 24) on increased sexual harassment in the Armed Forces. When I served at sea in the Royal Navy in the early 1990s, I frequently had the mickey taken out of me, often because I was female, but everyone else (I was the only woman aboard) had the mickey taken out of them too, because they were ginger, or short, or Welsh, or forgetful.
It was never malicious and I would have been seriously worried if I had not been teased; it would have been a sure sign that I was not accepted. However, if asked to tick boxes in an attitude survey my responses might well have been taken to indicate that I had suffered sexual harassment.
When I moved to the Ministry of Defence in Bath I found my treatment by civil servants far harder to take. I was offered a job on one project by a man who called me “poppet” throughout and when I asked for technical information about the compatibility of a radio receiver was told not to bother my “pretty little head about the details”.
I found this far more degrading than knowing that there were pornographic pin-ups in the male mess decks.
CHELLA SCOTT
Rugby, Warwickshire
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From Mr Edward Green
Sir, About 15 years ago I served as an Army officer in a defence research establishment where soft-porn calendars were particularly prevalent.
It took a large contract, involving several young women computer operators from an outside firm, for management to realise that these calendars were a form of sexual harassment. The problem was sorted out very quickly.
Sexual harassment in the Armed Forces is a leadership issue and promotion should be denied to those who don’t address it with vigour.
EDWARD GREEN
Lichfield, Staffordshire