Legislation
Key Legislative Milestones Impacting Women Service Members and Veterans.
Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) in the US military are less likely to become officers and therefore more likely to suffer serious injuries. They continue to be less likely to attain the highest levels of promotion, with women receiving even fewer slots.
The issue of deportation among female military service members and veterans is a complex and often overlooked problem. These women, who have served their adopted country, can find themselves in legal limbo, potentially facing deportation due to changes in immigration policies or minor infractions.
As women are the fastest growing population entering the armed services, so too are they the fastest growing population of veterans. While the armed forces offer benefits to those who join, it is imperative that women veterans are given every opportunity to succeed post-service. According to a RAND report published in 2022, women veterans are less likely to be unemployed, but are more likely to be living in poverty, with their median earnings approximately 20% less than their male counterparts. There are a lot of factors that play into this, and in order to better serve this growing population of women veterans, the following should be addressed:
As of 2019, 21 out of every 10,000 veterans were homeless1, a rate slightly higher than the overall homeless population. Veterans are 50% more likely to become homeless than other Americans due to poverty, lack of support networks, and dismal living conditions in overcrowded or substandard housing
LGBTQA+ female service members and veterans represent a unique demographic within both the military and veteran populations. While progress has been made, these individuals often face significant discrimination, healthcare, mental health, and social acceptance challenges.
Nearly one in four U.S. servicewomen reports being sexually assaulted in the military. Of those that do report, 64% expressed that they were retaliated against for reporting. For decades, sexual assault and harassment have festered through the ranks of the armed forces with military leaders repeatedly promising reform and then failing to live up to those promises. Women remain a distinct minority, making up only 16.5 percent of the armed services, yet nearly one in four servicewomen reports experiencing sexual assault in the military, and more than half report experiencing harassment, according to a meta-analysis of 69 studies published in 2018 in the journal Trauma, Violence & Abuse. (Men are victims of assault and harassment, too, though at significantly lower rates than women.)
Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) in the US military are less likely to become officers and therefore more likely to suffer serious injuries. They continue to be less likely to attain the highest levels of promotion, with women receiving even fewer slots.
Death & Dying
The issues surrounding death and dying are universal but take on unique dimensions among female service members and veterans. These women often face specific challenges related to their military service, which can impact their experiences with end-of-life care, mental health, and survivorship.
Veterans face unique challenges when transitioning back into civilian culture. When that transition combines with a shift to life on a college campus, these challenges are further exacerbated. Barriers to assistance with financial issues (personal, V.A. policies, or family-related), having to navigate education benefits, lack of access to physical and mental health services, and general re-orientation into the civilian or academic world cause massive amounts of frustrations for student veterans.
Women who serve in the military and veterans face unique challenges regarding family and children. These issues span from child care during deployment to transitioning back into civilian life, and they often have long-term effects on the women's well-being and their families.
Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) in the US military are less likely to become officers and therefore more likely to suffer serious injuries. They continue to be less likely to attain the highest levels of promotion, with women receiving even fewer slots.
There is a long history of toxic exposures and the military. For World War I and II, it was mustard gas. Ionizing Radiation was also a common toxic exposure for World War II veterans. What many veterans are concerned about today are Agent Orange, Camp Lejeune Water Contamination, PFAS, Fort McClellan toxic exposure, PFAS, Burn Pits, and Gulf War Related exposures. Agent Orange originates from exposure during the Vietnam War. Agent Orange was an herbicide mixture used by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War. Much of it contained a dangerous chemical contaminant called dioxin. Millions of Americans and Vietnamese are still affected, directly and indirectly, by the wartime U.S. spraying of Agent Orange and other herbicides over southern and central Vietnam. While more than 58,000 Americans lost their lives in the Vietnam War, it is estimated that 2.8 million veterans have been exposed to Agent Orange and later died.