The Female Veteran Experience
Veteran’s Day is vastly approaching, and we at Femme Fit Society are so appreciative of all of our veterans who have served our country. Thank you for your service! We appreciate you and all you do to preserve our freedoms.
This is super important to us as Lindsey Marcelli (co-founder of Femme Fit Society) is a female veteran. In honor of Veteran’s Day, we wanted to shed some light on the female veteran experience. I will give you advanced warning, not all of this information will be easy to read, but it will be real. These are the real wins and struggles of female veterans, and their stories deserve to be told.
If you are a female veteran, we’d love to hear from you and give you a shoutout for your service!
Statistics and background
There are currently over 2 million female veterans living in the United States today, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Women are the fastest growing group in the veteran population, as more and more brave women are coming back from serving in all branches of the military.
While women have served the military in various ways throughout all periods of US history, the involvement and degree to which they are involved has increasingly grown since the 1980s and 1990s. Bills have been repealed that prevented women from flying combat aircrafts, serving on combatant ships, serving on submarines, and so much more. The history of women in the military shows the resilience and perseverance of these tough, strong women who fought against a male-dominated institution to have the privilege of serving their country, not as women, but as soldiers (Women Veterans Report).
These milestones are huge steps for women, but the resources offered to women after they complete their tours have not quite kept up with the increasing numbers of women enlisting. Female veterans have completely different experiences than male veterans, and need different resources for the proper care when returning home. Our hope is that as more female veterans experiences are brought to light, more resources will be available to them for the specific challenges female veterans face.
Education is important to establish the care that these brave soldiers need when returning to civilian life. While some of this might be difficult to read, this will equip you to better understand and help those you know who might be struggling.
PTSD
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is present in over 20% of female veterans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan, according to the VA. With women increasingly joining the military, these numbers are anticipated to increase.
After 80% of women who participated in the Wounded Warrior 2020 Annual Warrior Survey reported currently living with PTSD, they conducted more in depth studies. “To better understand the prevalence of PTSD among women warriors, and the experiences that contribute to it, WWP (Wounded Warrior Project) conducted a more in-depth analysis of 2020 Annual Warrior Survey data. This analysis highlights three major PTSD risk factors prevalent among women warriors: combat exposure, co-occurring mental health conditions, and military sexual trauma.” (Wounded Warrior Project).
MST
Military Sexual Trauma (MST) is a huge issue plaguing our military, and unfortunately the vast majority of those who fall victim are women. According to the VA, 1 in 3 women veterans tell their VA healthcare providers that they experienced sexual harassment or sexual assault while serving. These are only considering the cases that are actually reported, and many go unreported. The odds of you knowing someone who has experienced MST are very high.
In a report from the VA’s Office of Inspector General, female veterans who have fallen victim to MST are twice as likely to experience homelessness in their lifetime than other female veterans. This is a serious issue that is unfortunately not changing, only increasing in statistics yearly.
Each VA Medical Facility has an MST Coordinator who is there to advocate for you and advise on care. You can read more about MST Coordinators here.
We were so captivated by these startling statistics that we will be releasing a follow up article diving entirely into this topic. Stay tuned for more coming soon, as this deserves to be expanded upon.
Resources for female veterans
Many studies have shown that veterans who have social support and close family and friends have acclimated to life after war far better than those who feel alone and without support. If you are far away from family or don’t have a support system, you can join one of the many support groups for female veterans! Here are a few different resources outside of those provided by the VA:
Foundation for Female Warriors: this foundation helps women veterans and their children by providing them with emergency stipends to cover living expenses, offsetting childcare costs, helping women find care for their mental health, and provides a support group of other female veterans for a sense of community.
WoVeN (Women’s Veteran Network): helps women veterans connect and find each other so that they find a community of other women veterans to lean on for support.
Barbara Giordano Foundation: provides holistic modalities for healing through workshops and retreats to women veterans to help with PTSD, MST, anxiety, depression and the difficult transition to civilian life.
Military Sisterhood Initiative (MSI): a national peer support network of and for women of the military. In effect, it's a network built on the tried and true military concept of having your sister's "six".
If none of these resources spoke to you, I found this link helpful for finding resources on a national and local level, and you might too!
If you are a female veteran struggling, please know you are not alone. You are brave, valued and we appreciate your sacrifices to your country.
