Secret Report Reveals British Army's Culture of Harassment and Hostility Towards Women
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In a virtual corner of Whitehall, buried within the Ministry of Defence's digital filing system, a cultural audit of the British Army sat, unread by the public.
Written in 2022, by Professor Anthony King, then Chair of War Studies at the University of Warwick, the report, 'To Fight and Win', would have stayed in the shadows, until it was brought into the light by researcher Joe Lloyd via a Freedom of Information request.
It's no surprise it took the force of the law to publish it. Its findings are damning.
The Army, the report notes - perhaps self-evidently - "is currently coded masculine." But that observation sits at the heart of the 109-page document which combines scholarly analysis with hundreds of hours of interviews across ranks and regiments to offer an unflinching portrait of Britain's military that, despite years of reform, remains "routinely and recurrently" hostile to women.
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The Army's challenge, King writes, is transforming a culture that believes itself "as necessarily masculine, best performed by men". Female soldiers, even when competent and committed, are "accidentally marginalised" at best, and victims of "purposeful" discrimination or predation at worst. Where structural barriers and behavioural norms combine to make women feel like "secondary", "weaker, worse soldiers".
The report's frankness is striking. It details "lad culture" among junior ranks where hard drinking and misogyny fuels misconduct. It describes the pernicious use of WhatsApp, often deployed by male soldiers to target or humiliate female colleagues. And it recounts how women, facing harassment or worse, see their complaints minimised, mishandled, or ignored altogether.
As the report notes: "Door-knocking typically occurs at night, often after personnel have been drinking. It is common for male soldiers to knock on a female's door soliciting her for sex." One case involved a soldier knocking for two hours on a woman's door; as the report notes, "he received no formal punishment; he was not even fined."
Male soldiers routinely sent photographs of their penises to female colleagues or stalked them on WhatsApp. One female told King: "At 17-years-old, I got dick-pics from people I didn't know." The report described how "a senior (officer) had slapped a female soldier's rear during a mess function", with no consequence to the offender.
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Packed with exclusive investigations, analysis, and features
SUBSCRIBE TODAY
In a virtual corner of Whitehall, buried within the Ministry of Defence's digital filing system, a cultural audit of the British Army sat, unread by the public.
Written in 2022, by Professor Anthony King, then Chair of War Studies at the University of Warwick, the report, 'To Fight and Win', would have stayed in the shadows, until it was brought into the light by researcher Joe Lloyd via a Freedom of Information request.
It's no surprise it took the force of the law to publish it. Its findings are damning.
The Army, the report notes - perhaps self-evidently - "is currently coded masculine." But that observation sits at the heart of the 109-page document which combines scholarly analysis with hundreds of hours of interviews across ranks and regiments to offer an unflinching portrait of Britain's military that, despite years of reform, remains "routinely and recurrently" hostile to women.
UK Charity Sanctioned Over 'Distressing' Fundraising Video for Israeli Military
The action by the Charity Commission followed a Byline Times investigation into the video, which appeared to show a Palestinian being hit by Israeli munitions
Iain Overton
The Army's challenge, King writes, is transforming a culture that believes itself "as necessarily masculine, best performed by men". Female soldiers, even when competent and committed, are "accidentally marginalised" at best, and victims of "purposeful" discrimination or predation at worst. Where structural barriers and behavioural norms combine to make women feel like "secondary", "weaker, worse soldiers".
The report's frankness is striking. It details "lad culture" among junior ranks where hard drinking and misogyny fuels misconduct. It describes the pernicious use of WhatsApp, often deployed by male soldiers to target or humiliate female colleagues. And it recounts how women, facing harassment or worse, see their complaints minimised, mishandled, or ignored altogether.
As the report notes: "Door-knocking typically occurs at night, often after personnel have been drinking. It is common for male soldiers to knock on a female's door soliciting her for sex." One case involved a soldier knocking for two hours on a woman's door; as the report notes, "he received no formal punishment; he was not even fined."
Male soldiers routinely sent photographs of their penises to female colleagues or stalked them on WhatsApp. One female told King: "At 17-years-old, I got dick-pics from people I didn't know." The report described how "a senior (officer) had slapped a female soldier's rear during a mess function", with no consequence to the offender.
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