The Impact of Military Sexual Misconduct on the Deployment Experiences of Woman-Identifying Canadian Veterans

The present research examined how military sexual misconduct (MSM) impacts the perceived experiences of unit cohesion in a sample of woman-identifying Canadian military Veterans. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 veterans, asking questions about deployment-related factors (e.g., rewarding/challenging aspects). Although MSM was not explicitly probed for, it was widely discussed in relation to participants’ experiences of unit cohesion. Thematic analysis yielded three themes describing participants’ perceived feelings of unit cohesion—value, acceptance, and unity. In contexts where MSM was present, participants described feelings of being undermined, resulting in a degraded experience of unit cohesion. In contexts where MSM was absent, participants described value, acceptance, and unity as being improved, as well as an enhanced experience of unit cohesion. These findings provide an exploratory model by which to consider the impact of MSM on the gendered experience of unit cohesion.