 | By Indrani Sen Culture Editor, Opinion |
At first glance, Maya Guzdar's story of being sexually harassed as an intern at the Department of Defense stood out to me mainly because it differed from so many others I had heard. |
It started out with a scenario that's familiar, unfortunately, to too many women: At an office happy hour, a more senior colleague cornered Guzdar and other interns, and made her uncomfortable, standing too close and asking insistent, suggestive questions. Only later in the evening, when his intoxicated behavior escalated and he appeared to lunge toward her, did another colleague, an officer, step in and push her aggressor away. That evening, Guzdar recalls in her guest essay for Opinion, she found herself questioning her own experience, "gaslighting" herself: "I'm overreacting," she thought. "It wasn't that big of a deal." |
It's here that Guzdar's story takes an unexpected — and positive — turn. When she arrived at the office the next day, Guzdar learned that her colleagues thought what had happened to her was indeed a big deal. The officer who had intervened the evening before had reported the incident, and others who had been present corroborated his account. The Department of Defense initiated an investigation. Women colleagues reached out to Guzdar to express their support and share with her their own stories of harassment in their years working in national security. Soon after, the man left the agency. |
It's a heartening story, but given the "epidemic" of sexual assault and harassment in the U.S. armed forces that Melinda Wenner Moyer reported on in a powerful New York Times Magazine story last month, Guzdar's positive experience is perhaps an anomaly in the national security sphere. |
"Many service members leave the military soon after experiencing sexual trauma — and not voluntarily," wrote Moyer, who cited research showing that one in four U.S. servicewomen reports being sexually assaulted in the military. "Not only are military rapists rarely punished, but their victims are often punished for reporting what happened." |
Guzdar is clear-eyed about this reality, and in her guest essay she acknowledges the "untold numbers of women whose ambitions were crushed because their stories of harassment, assault or misconduct ended differently." |
Sometimes the exception to the rule can be revealing, however, as I think it is in Guzdar's case. It's mind-boggling and tragic to think of all that crushed ambition — the destroyed hopes, and in some cases the missed potential and lost talent, of the many women (and men) who were harassed and assaulted, and who never saw justice served. |
The flip side of that is a story of opportunity and potential: When the response to harassment, assault and sexual misconduct is swift, fair and transparent, it can affirm to those who have been mistreated that their experience and their safety matters, that they are valued and believed. That makes a difference not just in the moment but for years to come. And it sends a message not just to the individual but to the entire institution. |
After finishing her internship last week, Guzdar is entering her senior year at Stanford University, where she is preparing for what's likely to be an impressive career in national security. She moves forward, she writes, "with my confidence, dignity, idealism and respect for my co-workers and the agency I worked for intact, if not strengthened." |
It's alarming to think that an incident at a happy hour could have derailed that trajectory. We, as a nation, are lucky that it didn't. |
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