Females endure system ‘set up for men’

“At best, we are 15 per cent female, so the system is still set up for men.” Maya Eichler Canada research chair in social innovation and community engagement

Women are the fastest growing segment of military veterans in Canada but the system of veteran support was historically designed with men in mind, a Mount Saint Vincent University researcher says.

“The problem with gender neutrality or as I would more accurately call it, gender blindness, is that this can have unintended and unanticipated discriminatory and inequitable outcomes for those who have not been included from the very beginning,” Maya Eichler told the Nova Scotia legislature’s standing committee on veterans affairs in an online meeting Jan. 18.

“Therefore in Canada today, I would argue that we face gaps in knowledge about women veterans, we face gaps in services specifically tailored for women veterans and all of this can lead to increased rates of injury and illness and decrease the wellbeing of women veterans.”

Eichler is the Canada research chair in social innovation and community engagement, an associate professor of political science and women’s studies at Mount Saint Vincent and director of the university’s centre for social innovation and community engagement in military affairs.

She has for the past decade researched gender and sexual violence in the armed forces.

Eichler read a quote from a female veteran who had participated in her research.

“At best, we are 15 per cent female, so the system is still set up for men,” the female veteran said. “The system is still set up on the assumption that you are male and that you have a civilian spouse. I think your average female soldier still has it harder because you are either married to someone still in uniform or you are single. All of the programs, all of the research is still very male focused.”

Eichler said the problem for researchers, service providers and policy-makers is that military and veterans systems have historically been designed for men while the assumption at the same time has been that it is a gender-neutral system.

“At the same time, it’s important to go beyond what I will call an add women and stir approach,” Eichler said. “We do want to focus on women but we want to go beyond that. A focus on women veterans issues needs to happen within a broader mainstreaming of a sex and gender lens into all veteran research policy, programming and services.”

Eichler shared what research has divulged about female veterans in Canada.

“We know that they share common experiences with men but we also know that women face unique sex and gender-based risks and vulnerabilities,” she said. “Women leave the military for different reasons than men. They are more likely to leave for family reasons.”

Women leave the military with higher rates of medical issues than men, with sexspecific health issues that began while in service but have long-term consequences beyond service, Eichler said.

“These are both physical and mental health issues and complex health issues that are often not well understood by providers.”

Women have higher rates of chronic pain compared with male veterans, they experience a steeper decline in income and are more likely to be working part-time or in lower-paying jobs as civilians.

“Women are more likely to have experienced more sexual trauma in the military workplace,” she said. “They are also more likely to be mistrustful of the health-care system and providers due to these experiences.”

Included in the long list of what research has shown, Eichler said female veterans more often have responsibilities as caregivers than men and are less likely to have an identified caregiver for their own needs. They are more likely than men to be single, separated, divorced or widowed.

“Women are more likely to be single parents during the transition to civilian life and may therefore lack family support.”

Eichel said women encounter transition and veteran systems tailored for the male norm.

“They are not recognized as a veteran to the same extent as men,” she said. “They may also be less inclined to identify as veterans.

“Women may not feel welcomed and supported in typical veteran spaces and may therefore not seek out those supports.”

Women also experience longer wait times for decisions regarding military disability claims and military women have higher rates of suicide when compared with women in the general population.

Female veterans also have unique risks for homelessness and gender-specific housing needs.

Eichler has found an elusive silver lining in her research, saying that during the time she has worked on these issues, sex and gender discrimination have increasingly become recognized as important veteran concerns.

That awareness and the changes it has fomented “are an effort to undo the historic invisibility of women and correct the assumed male and masculine veteran role that exists.”