Did any of these women's experiences surprise you? If you are a woman with military experience, or have a family member who is in the military, have you (or they) experienced or witnessed challenges, prejudices or abuses?

A major theme of the story explores the female soldier's experience. Did any of these women's experiences surprise you? If you are a woman with military experience, or have a family member who is in the military, have you (or they) experienced or witnessed challenges, prejudices or abuses?

Unfortunately, the experiences of these women did not surprise me. Although I've never served in the military myself, I recently watched a sobering documentary called A Private War (I think that's what it was called) about how the abuse of women in the military is more widespread than many people realize.

I was one of the first group of women to actually go through the exact same basic training as the men at Fort Jackson, SC. The only exception was one class we had to take which showed us how to apply the right amount of make-up (they actually gave us make-up and made us apply it in class). The male drill sergeants at the back of the classroom were making snarky remarks at us as we left the room. I will finish to say that as a whole, the females out-shot the men 2-to-1 in rifle skills. Take that boys!

Wow, thanks for sharing renem! They actually had a make up class? It's interesting to see how much things have changed. And how cool is that about the women scoring higher in rifle skills!

Although I was not in the military, but was a military wife, I have never witnessed prejudice or abuse. I can't say it didn't happen but I never saw or heard about it.

I have a friend that was in the Air Force. She had wanted to go to college but her family could not afford it. She said she endured 4 years of harassment/domination cinema order to complete her tour of duty and get her college benefits. This was probably 30 years ago.

My daughter suffered plenty of harassment while she was in the Navy but she and I are both proud of her service.

Even today it becomes public that some of our military women have been bullied and abused. That is disgraceful. So no, it does not surprise me that women have always been harassed, abused and wrongly challenged while in military service to our country. The "GOOD OLE BOYS" network will always be protected and show their power, as despicable as it is.

Given the amount of sexual harassment and abuse occurring today it does not surprise me that this would occur in the military. Given the code of silence or the brotherhood that is fostered in the military, it is more subdued, suppressed and hidden. As a member of a family with 3 generations of West Pointers, one being female, who was bullied as a cadet (in the early 90's) even though she was the Colonel's daughter. She did not report any of it for fear of making it worse. Only told her mother!

I have a son in the military, and when he got deployed, we met some of the soldiers he worked with, and a large number of them were women. I plan on talking to him about how he felt the women were treated both stateside and abroad. I was surprised at the number of women in his unit, and I think most Americans would be surprised.