Armed forces ‘need Metoo moment’ amid culture of misogyny

The Army needs a Metoo moment, a retired colonel publishing a new book about sexism in the forces has said.

Lt Col Diane Allen told how private online forums were inundated with anecdotes from female officers detailing their experiences of sexism after the scandal surrounding Harvey Weinstein, the convicted Hollywood producer, broke in 2017.

“It was an outpouring of everything that had happened in their careers. It was the full spectrum [of complaints],” she told Sky News. Lt Col Allen, 55, claimed drunken male soldiers attempted to break down her bedroom door one night in the Nineties, and that her superiors passed her over for promotion because of her gender.

“It is not the whole military that is the problem,” she said. “It is feral packs we can’t control, and we don’t actually deal with those groups, so when it does go wrong, it can go very wrong.” She said it is now time for the Army to have a Metoo moment “to acknowledge what happened and move on, and accept this is part of our history”.

Lt Col Allen, who received an OBE in recognition of her work as a reservist in the Intelligence Corps is publishing a book documenting her career in the Army, which she began in 1983. She resigned in February. The book, Forewarned,

describes the military’s culture as rife with sexism, and overseen by a “toxic cohort of senior, misogynistic, white, middle-class males”.

In an annual Armed Forces survey published this month, 12 per cent of all service personnel said they have suffered from bullying, discrimination or harassment in the past year. Of those, 90 per cent made no formal complaint – primarily because they believed nothing would be done, and for fear it might adversely affect their careers.

Last July, the Ministry of Defence pledged new measures to tackle “inappropriate behaviour” in the military, following a review into sexual offences, bullying and other wrongdoing.