For Women Warriors, Deep Wounds, Little Care

[Snowden]

For Women Warriors, Deep Wounds, Little Care


By HELEN BENEDICT
Published: May 26, 2008

THIS Memorial Day, as an ever-increasing number of mentally and physically wounded soldiers return from Iraq, the Department of Veterans Affairs faces a pressing crisis: women traumatized not only by combat but also by sexual assault and harassment from their fellow service members. Sadly, the department is failing to fully deal with this problem.

Women make up some 15 percent of the United States active duty forces, and 11 percent of the soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nearly a third of female veterans say they were sexually assaulted or raped while in the military, and 71 percent to 90 percent say they were sexually harassed by the men with whom they served.

This sort of abuse drastically increases the risk and intensity of post-traumatic stress disorder. One study found that female soldiers who were sexually assaulted were nine times more likely to show symptoms of this disorder than those who weren’t. Sexual harassment by itself is so destructive, another study revealed, it causes the same rates of post-traumatic stress in women as combat does in men. And rape can lead to other medical crises, including diabetes, asthma, chronic pelvic pain, eating disorders, miscarriages and hypertension.

The threat of post-traumatic stress has risen in recent years as women’s roles in war have changed. More of them now come under fire, suffer battle wounds and kill the enemy, just as men do.

As women return for repeat tours, usually redeploying with their same units, many must go back to war with the same man (or men) who abused them. This leaves these women as threatened by their own comrades as by the war itself. Yet the combination of sexual assault and combat has barely been acknowledged or studied.

Last month, when the RAND Corporation released the biggest non-military survey of the mental health of troops since 2001, it unwittingly reflected this lack of research. The survey found that women suffer from higher rates of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression than men do, but it neglected to look into why this might be, and asked no questions about abuse from fellow soldiers. Terri Tanielian, the project’s co-editor, told me that RAND needs more money to explore these higher rates of trauma among women.

As the more than 191,500 women who have served in the Middle East since 2001 return home, they will increasingly flood the Veterans Affairs system. To ask those who need help for post-traumatic stress disorder to turn to a typical Veterans Affairs hospital, built in the 1950s and designed to treat men, is untenable. Women who have been raped or sexually assaulted often cannot face therapy groups or medical facilities full of men.

At the moment, the Department of Veterans Affairs operates only six inpatient post-traumatic stress disorder programs specifically for women. And although all 153 department-run hospitals will treat women, only 22 have stand-alone women’s clinics that offer a full range of medical and psychological services.

This number of clinics may seem adequate for the 1.7 million female veterans currently at home, especially since they represent only 7.2 percent of all veterans at the moment, but it isn’t. Many clinics are miles from where soldiers live, and many more are open only a few hours a week and lack staff members trained to deal with sexual assault, let alone assault combined with combat trauma.

The Department of Veterans Affairs says it plans to open more clinics for post-traumatic stress disorder, but how many will be only for women remains undecided.

Women are the fastest-growing group of veterans, and by 2020 they are projected to account for 20 percent of all veterans under the age of 45. Not all of these women will have suffered sexual assault, but many will have medical or psychological needs that conventional department hospitals cannot meet.

The Department of Veterans Affairs must open more comprehensive women’s health clinics, designate more facilities for women who have endured both combat and military sexual trauma and finance more support groups specifically for female combat veterans. The best way to honor all of our soldiers is to do what we can to help them mend.

Helen Benedict, a professor of journalism at Columbia, is the author of the novel “The Opposite of Love” and the forthcoming “The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq.”





http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/26/op...html?th&emc=th

[mpwife1165th]

It's terrible that this happens. I guess I was one of the fortunate ones...9 years of service and never had to deal with sexual assault or harassment. I did recently get a voice mail from some doctor in Texas doing research on the health of Gulf War veterans...guess I should return his call.

[Bluehawk]

Originally Posted by Snowden

For Women Warriors, Deep Wounds, Little Care

...Women make up some 15 percent of the United States active duty forces, and 11 percent of the soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nearly a third of female veterans say they were sexually assaulted or raped while in the military, and 71 percent to 90 percent say they were sexually harassed by the men with whom they served.

...This number of clinics may seem adequate for the 1.7 million female veterans currently at home, especially since they represent only 7.2 percent of all veterans at the moment, but it isn’t. Many clinics are miles from where soldiers live, and many more are open only a few hours a week and lack staff members trained to deal with sexual assault, let alone assault combined with combat trauma.

...Women are the fastest-growing group of veterans, and by 2020 they are projected to account for 20 percent of all veterans under the age of 45. Not all of these women will have suffered sexual assault, but many will have medical or psychological needs that conventional department hospitals cannot meet.

I've had such a hard time accepting those sex assault/harassment statistics... not to say they are false, because I have no idea.

Something about it just doesn't seem common sense, that's all. It doesn't make sense from what I know of military discipline, the general respectful behavior of most men toward women, the tenacious self-defensive character of most females today (especially militarily trained females), and the sisterhood tendency to gang up and kick ass when threatened.

For sure, with more and more females in more and more dangerous GI jobs, more care needs to be taken if/when they have special handling needs in-country or when they get home.

But, isn't it just a real possibility that a lot of what is normal verbal and physical horseplay among guys, gets interpreted as "harassment" among females? I've had this happen even with my own daughters and girlfriends/wives, ALL my life. Seems like females have a VERY low, and somewhat erratic, threshhold of tolerance for goofing around. Whereas guys are doing it constantly practically from the moment of birth! Full disclosure, I've had two sons too... so. have seen in person how they are from birth.

The more females working with males in stressful conditions, the more likely will be incidents of horseplay, just to relieve the tension? No?

Don't wanna get into some big freakin' pissing contest with Feminism on this, but maybe there are some other factors involved. It is just damn hard to accept that 71 - 90% of our women are being sexually harassed. THAT is a ridiculous implausibility. Fer cryin' out loud, you'd think they'd not have any time to fight the enemy if they were spending so much of it harassing female troops.

[Woodmonkey]

I agree. Speaking very generally here - Women today seem incapable of rough humor unless they initiate it and it goes exactly as they intend it to. They don't seem to be able to 'shrug it off'.

This seemed bogus to me too.

[las47032]

Originally Posted by Bluehawk

I've had such a hard time accepting those sex assault/harassment statistics... not to say they are false, because I have no idea.

Something about it just doesn't seem common sense, that's all. It doesn't make sense from what I know of military discipline, the general respectful behavior of most men toward women, the tenacious self-defensive character of most females today (especially militarily trained females), and the sisterhood tendency to gang up and kick ass when threatened.

For sure, with more and more females in more and more dangerous GI jobs, more care needs to be taken if/when they have special handling needs in-country or when they get home.

But, isn't it just a real possibility that a lot of what is normal verbal and physical horseplay among guys, gets interpreted as "harassment" among females? I've had this happen even with my own daughters and girlfriends/wives, ALL my life. Seems like females have a VERY low, and somewhat erratic, threshhold of tolerance for goofing around. Whereas guys are doing it constantly practically from the moment of birth! Full disclosure, I've had two sons too... so. have seen in person how they are from birth.

The more females working with males in stressful conditions, the more likely will be incidents of horseplay, just to relieve the tension? No?

Don't wanna get into some big freakin' pissing contest with Feminism on this, but maybe there are some other factors involved. It is just damn hard to accept that 71 - 90% of our women are being sexually harassed. THAT is a ridiculous implausibility. Fer cryin' out loud, you'd think they'd not have any time to fight the enemy if they were spending so much of it harassing female troops.

Food for thought.

Before I joined the Army and while I was active duty, I heard the saying , "Join the Army and lay WAC's, not the stuff you put on floors. Join the Navy and ride the WAVES" Women Marines were called bams.

Also, some people in the military and a few civilians consider military women as lesbians or harlot. A hussy if you gave it up easy or you had a relationship going only to find out the guy only wanted you for a toy to play with when he felt like it. Likewise, women were considered a lesbian because the woman refuse to give it up.

Though I never encountered sexual assault, but I did encounter the typical male bigoted, chauvinistic attitude toward women in the military, verbal harassment while I was in the Army. After my military service, and during the time I was married, I experienced domestic violence as in mental abuse with occasional physical battery.

An example of verbal harassment was when guys would say "WAC, WAC," and they sounded like ducks quacking.

Another instance of shenanigans where I was stationed at, one night while I was on CQ guys would call the WAC Company looking for dates, and a fellow called impersonating an officer.

One of my duty sections, during lunch hours and most of the people were gone, I was sitting at my desk and two guys who worked up stairs came down and started to pester me. They thought it would be cute to find out what kind of undergarment I was wearing and what by chest size was. They thought WAC’s wore khaki underclothing. I told them it was none of their business, but they kept pursuing the matter. One of them reached over and grabbed my blouse which was to top part of my summer uniform. These two jerks thought they would get a peek to see my bra and figure out my breast size. I was able to convey the message, when I said no, I meant it.

I chose not to be the victim and no longer gave the perpetrator the power over my life. Making that decision was the hardest step for me, but once made I decided to be no longer a prisoner of my emotions, and I refuse to put myself in the poor me category.

You have the choice of remaining a victim of the circumstance or over come the experience, and continuing to play the role self-indulgent sorrow over your own ordeal will serve no one. And every time you talk about what happened to you in the victim pity me mode, you are enforcing the circumstance, and you are still giving the power to the person who committed the act, as well as conveying you still want to be a victim. Furthermore, most people who harass know how to push your buttons to see what you will do, and they will continue their behavior until you decide they can no longer torment you.

In addition in remaining a victim and feeling bitter, by not letting go of all these negative emotions, carries over to other relationships. Always wanting to nail men to the wall, and it will not help in a working relationship military or civilian. And this kind of attitude will eventually alienate men, and they will not help in making any allowances for the guys who assault, harass and in other respects make life miserable for women in the work place. A good deal men are not the enemy, and most of them are not sexist jerks and misogynists.

Links for military women and women vets


Center for Women Veterans Home


Facilities


Redirect!

Military Woman Issues
Harassment, Discrimination and Domestic Violence
Issues
Opinion Topics
Military Life

The Minerva Center | Welcome to the Minerva Center

Post-traumatic Stress Treatment Programs PTSD

NIDA - About NIDA - Organization - Women and Sex/Gender Differences Research - Overview

Domestic Violence in the Military
Regarding sexual assault and harassment.

[Bluehawk]

Originally Posted by las47032

Food for thought.

Before I joined the Army and while I was active duty, I heard the saying , "Join the Army and lay WAC's, not the stuff you put on floors. Join the Navy and ride the WAVES" Women Marines were called bams...

I chose not to be the victim and no longer gave the perpetrator the power over my life. Making that decision was the hardest step for me, but once made I decided to be no longer a prisoner of my emotions, and I refuse to put myself in the poor me category...

Great post all in all...

Yes, some males say and do really crude and offensive things. I apologize for that, and have done all I can to teach my sons a better way, which they appear to have fully absorbed as men.

Given the situations you and other women have experienced in uniform, I have no doubt that there are a majority of men who would not have tolerated you being treated in that disgusting manner either... for what it may be worth.

Cowards and fools are, fortunately, still in the minority.