More than 200 women in the national security sector on Tuesday penned an open letter on sexual harassment, calling on the industry to reform practices to decrease sexual misconduct.
In the letter, obtained by The Hill, the women ask for multiple changes within the national security workplace realm, including 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,” the letter reads.
The letter is signed by former diplomats, former Defense Department officials, academics, and think tank employees. It argues that while women are hired by government agencies, for example, in numbers equal to men, they fail to move up in the ranks as often.
The effort comes as 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 ranged from Hollywood, to politics, to the technology sector. Both Republican and Democrat politicians, including Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Alabama Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore, have been accused of varying degrees of sexual misconduct.
The letter, which includes the hashtag “#metoonatsec” at the top, says sexual misconduct protocols within the 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.”