REPORT DETAILS EXTRA PROBLEMS WOMEN
FACE IN MILITARY CAREERS
October 16, 2009 Source
Full text pdf.
Almost 15% of female vets of recent wars screened positive
for sexual trauma.
"Women serving in the U.S. military face unique
personal and professional challenges that their male
counterparts don't, a veterans' group report has found.
Their concerns centered on
said the report from Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans
of America."
"Military life appears to take a greater toll
on their marriages. Female troops suffer a much higher
divorce rate than do the men in uniform. Their marriages failed
at almost triple the rate in 2008 -- 9.2 percent, versus
3.3 percent for male troops.
While highly rated overall, the military health care
system faces difficulty delivering services while women are deployed."
"Some women have raised concerns over privacy,
and adequate access to feminine hygiene products or
gender-specific prescriptions such as birth control
pills while in theater," the report said."
"Separately, women in the military have been "coping
with significant and under-reported sexual assault and harassment for
decades," according to the report.
"In 2008, reports of sexual assaults were
up 9 percent from the year before, but the military
believes that the numbers are under-reported and that
many victims, fearing reprisals, wait until after leaving
the armed forces to tell their stories.
As a result, the Department of Veterans Affairs
screens for what it calls military sexual trauma, or
MST, a term the agency uses for sexual harassment and assault. Through
May 2007, almost 15 percent of female Iraq and Afghanistan
veterans who have gone to the VA for care have screened positive for
MST."
"Since the war in Afghanistan began in late 2001,
more than 212,000 female service members have been
deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq, making up 11 percent
of U.S. forces there."
