Safety in the Peace Corps

Brian Ross from ABC's 20/20 aired an investigation in January about victims of sexual assault in the Peace Corps. Six women were invited to share their experiences navigating the Peace Corps post-assault. The major complaints were that officials didn't take the victims seriously, were disrespectful and skeptical, and blamed the women for putting themselves in dangerous situations.

A couple week ago, there was a congressional hearing to investigate the situation. Peace Corps Director Aaron S. Williams testified along with a number of RPCV survivors. 20/20 aired a follow-up segment with clips of the testimony, which you can find here.

Sexual assault is scary enough in and of itself, but when people and larger institutions don't take it seriously, it becomes an even more frightening, isolating and harmful issue. The Peace Corps doesn't get much publicity in the national media anymore, so in a way it sort of sucks that this is what's getting a ton of attention right now. However, the greater tragedy is that the PC has such a poor track record of supporting sexual assault survivors in the first place.

A NY Times article about this issue produced some very thoughtful comments, most of them from Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs). Liz from Albany, NY addressed the problem of sexism abroad:

The Peace Corps also needs to take the ramifications sending volunteers into highly male-dominated cultures much much more seriously. Currently, it just goes along with the normalization of sexual harassment that women and women Peace Corps Volunteers experience in these countries. Female volunteers are sent to work in the public sphere, which is traditionally occupied by men (women traditionally occupy the private sphere). When women venture into the public sphere alone in many countries men will often respond by harassing them; after all, only a "loose" woman would go out in public alone. This is what I experienced in the mountain towns and cities in Honduras. It was extremely annoying at best, and threatening at worst. By the end of my service, I was glad to get away from that.

What did I learn about this in my training? Oh, it was normal so try to think of it as a compliment! Nothing about how draining it is being harassed on the streets constantly, or what the logical extension of that behavior can be in some instances. None of that was discussed.

Having spent some months in Mexico, I'm familiar with the machismo culture and the catcalls (gueritaaaaa). It was mostly annoying but occasionally someone would be bold enough to talk to you or touch you. Almost every one of the 20 or so women in my study abroad program was touched inappropriately by a strange man during the semester. Sometimes it was a quick touch on the arm or the hair, other times it was a grope on a packed bus or in a busy market. The program staff told us that we needed to be careful, but didn't offer much advice beyond that. A couple of friends got in the habit of telling off the creepy catcallers, which was an amazing to watch. I was never that confrontational, but I'd like to think I'm a bit more bold now.

I think it can be tricky to respectfully navigate another culture without fully endorsing the social norms. Picking and choosing which cultural practices are ok and "just the way they do things" versus which are really offensive or just plain wrong can be really difficult, especially if you're a complete outsider. At first glance, eating exotic animals may seem cruel, but it's probably not really that bad... unless people are eating endangered birds or human children or something. However, with time and familiarity, there are certainly ways to address the offensive parts and work to change things. In my limited experience with the Peace Corps, that seems like what this whole endeavor is all about. Encouraging people grow and change to their benefit. I think thats why the initial 20/20 episode was so deeply shocking: how could an organization that cross-culturally endorses female empowerment be so insensitive to the needs of it's own volunteers?

In response to all the press, the Peace Corps has dropped one the safety training videos that showed women talking about their sexual assaults and reasons why it happened ("It was late, I was drinking" etc.). PC Directors Williams also talked about hiring an victim's advocate, and I'm not sure if that's happened yet or is in the works.

In any case, some encouraging progress is being made and hopefully theres more on the way. RPCV Casey Frazee created First Response Action, an advocacy group for victims of sexual assault in the Peace Corps. There is lots of good stuff on the blog and the website, including a petition on Change.org that I'd encourage you to sign!