After her nine years in office, Congresswoman Niki Tsongas said she has worked hard to achieve gender equality in the U.S. Military, and positive change is definitely coming.

On Thursday, Oct. 6, Congresswoman Tsongas visited UMass Lowell to discuss with students the issues of gender equality and sexual assault in the U.S. Military. She answered student questions and discussed topics that audience members said they were glad were being brought to their attention. She also discussed military reform.

“We all have to make sure that, at the very least, we are well protecting those who are serving,” she said. “And that we are putting in place the resources we need to best protect this country.”

Tsongas ran for her seat in Congress as a Democrat in 2007 during a special election after Marty Meehan left office to become chancellor of UMass Lowell. She said her parents were her inspiration to go into public service, as they were both involved as well, and because of her husband, Paul Tsongas, who was a U.S. Senator and for whom the Tsongas Center is named after.

While she has been in Congress, Tsongas said she has worked on a bill every year that deals with reform in the military that then is incorporated into a larger piece of legislation.

“It begins to address some of the shortcomings in the ways in which the services deal with [military reform],” she said.

One topic that she said has previously been included in this bill is the issue of body armor in the military because both women and men have to wear the same type of body armor. This was an issue for women specifically because the armor not only caused permanent damage to soldiers because of its weight, but it was originally designed just for men.

“It’s a different body configuration,” she said. “What works for a man does not work for a woman.”

Tsongas said she learned throughout this development that women wearing this armor struggled to lift their arms to shoot a rifle. She said their abilities were compromised and they were unable to fully do their job in this armor. She said this issue is still being worked on and improved upon today.

She also said women soldiers are forced to wear men’s shoes and that women’s prosthetics were not designed as well as men’s. She said both of these issues are now being reformed as well.

Another topic Tsongas discussed was adapting combat positions to be gender neutral so that both men and women have an equal chance of holding power in them.

“Gender neutral standards are being developed for each of those positions,” she said. “Women are serving and serving just about everywhere and now they will also be eligible for combat related positions.”

Tsongas also said the number of women in the military is expected to increase greatly within the coming years. This led her to discuss her stance on whether women should have to sign up for the draft, which she said she thinks they should.

“I’m a strong supporter of that,” she said. “As long as we have it, I do think that women also should have to register.”

Another important topic Tsongas discussed was sexual assault within the military. She said she takes a very strong stance on this subject.

“It’s an egregious issue,” she said. “It’s been around altogether too long.”

Junior political science major Shaylyn Davis said she agreed with Tsongas on this issue and said she was glad to hear someone like Tsongas discussing such an important topic.

“There needs to be a stronger stance taken in support of victims of sexual violence in the military,” she said. “I thought [the talk] was really informative. She actually told us her real opinions on these subjects.”

Tsongas said that she has worked on issues of sexual assault for years. Recently, she said the issue of male-on-male sexual assault has become more common than people know.

“This is an issue that is so underground because it is very difficult for survivors to talk about,” she said. “We are challenging the services to really think better about how to make this something that is more visible and in which those who need help are able to seek it and that the help is there that they need.”

Audience members said they were very interested in these topics and teaching assistant Ti Akande said she thought it was a great talk for students.

“I think it was very enlightening,” she said. “It gives [students] sort of an inside view into the happenings and what transpires in Congress.”

Congresswoman Tsongas discussed many issues that her audience said were important and enlightening to them. While some of these topics she said could seem controversial, she said they are important to make positive change happen.

“There are debates around them,” she said. “But once a debate is over, in general, we come together to move ahead.”