Coast Guard Vice Commandant Vice Adm. Sally Brice-O'Hara makes the keynote address during the 2011 Women's History and Equality CelebrationPhoto byUnited States Department of Homeland Security

You can read the first half of this story in Part 1: From the Revolution to Korea

Part 2: Vietnam through Today

Vietnam War

According to the US Department of Veterans Affairs, more than 265,000 American women served the military during the Vietnam war. Ninety percent of the women worked as volunteer nurses. These brave women served in difficult and dangerous behind-the-lines locations in massive causality situations involving amputations, wounds, and chest tubes for their patients. Approximately 11,000 women were stationed in Vietnam during the nearly twenty-year war. Ninety percent of them were nurses in the Army, Navy, and Air Force. However, women also served as physicians, air traffic controllers, intelligence officers, clerks, and in other positions. Most of the women who served in Vietnam volunteered to go.

President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Public Law 90 - 130 in November of 1967. The law removed the 2% limit on women in the military as well as the promotion restrictions. In June of 1970, President Richard M. Nixon promoted Colonel Anna Mae Hays, chief of the Army Nurse Corps and Colonel Elizabeth P. Hoisington, Director of the Women's Army Corps to the rank of Brigadier General:

The Cold War

Until the 1970s, women with children under the age of eighteen could not serve in the military. Women who became pregnant while serving were automatically discharged. Although policy changed to allow pregnant women to stay in service and provided for convalescent leave for the birth of a child in 1975, many women who served during the 1970s were told they could not stay. In reality, whether or not a pregnant service member could remain in the military was decided on a case-by-case basis, depending upon the recommendation of doctors. Women who were told by their superiors that they had to resign after becoming pregnant found out much later that those superiors were either misinformed or willfully providing misinformation.

In October of 1975, President Gerald R. Ford signed Public Law 94 – 106. This law allowed women to be admitted to previously all-male military colleges. The first women began attending the military academies in the summer of 1976. Female cadets in those first cohorts faced facilities that hadn't been designed with them in mind. Many male cadets didn't want them there, making the environment uncomfortable for the women at best. In the spring of 1980 that first cohort graduated from the United States Air Force Academy, the United States Coast Guard Academy, the United States Military Academy, and the United States Naval Academy.

From the Gulf War to Iraq and Afghanistan

From 1990 to 1991, more than 40,000 women deployed to combat zones. Though they still could not technically serve in direct combat roles or assignments, they provided various types of support to those who served on the front lines.

According to the USO, more than 300,000 women have served in Iraq and Afghanistan since September 11, 2001.

In 2013, then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced that the ban on women in combat would be lifted entirely. From that point forward, female service members have been allowed to serve in direct ground combat roles. More than 9,000 have earned Combat Action Badges. Today, women comprise fifteen percent of the active-duty military and eighteen percent of the Guard and Reserve.

Women Veterans

Women veterans comprise just ten percent of veterans and less than two percent of women. While many programs and support services exist for veterans, very few have been created specifically with women veterans in mind., and there is no system in place to unify these resources in a cohesive and effective way. As a result, the needs of women veterans are often overlooked. As the number of women serving in the military increases it is important to ensure that women veterans have the care they need.

Even with the full history of women in the US Military and the increased percentage of those serving, many women veterans report that they are often asked where their husband served. They are often challenged for using veteran parking spaces and other amenities for veterans. Veterans Affairs employees continue to confuse them for spouses and caregivers or challenge their veteran status.

Older women veterans are less likely to use their earned benefits and services compared to their younger counterparts, despite being equally as likely to be eligible for and need such benefits and services. Some women Cold War veterans have reported that they had approached the VA medical system and were made to feel that they didn’t deserve the services because they “didn’t fight.” Due to this perception, many never went back.

Many women have felt uncomfortable approaching the VA for assistance because their military experience was cut short or otherwise marred because they experienced Military Sexual Trauma (MST); that is, sexual assault and/or harassment. While this also affects men in the military, women are more likely to experience MST. An estimated one in three female veterans and one in one hundred male veterans in the VA healthcare system have reported experiencing MST. A 2019 study revealed that veterans who experience MST have a higher risk of developing psychiatric difficulties such as PTSD. According to the study, these veterans may avoid VA medical facilities because of the potential to “cue distressing memories and symptoms.”

The VA Response

The Department of Veterans Affairs now recognizes the under-utilization of their services by women veterans, and are responding to the call to treat women veterans with the respect and dignity they have earned. According to the Center for Women Veterans (CWA), the VA is “focused on the needs of women Veterans and cultural transformation.”

The VA has introduced White Ribbon VA, a national call to eliminate sexual harassment, sexual assault, and domestic violence across the Department of Veterans Affairs by promoting a positive change in culture so that the actions outlined in the pledge become the organizational norm. According to the VA, Secretary Denis McDonough is making accountability of those who commit harassment or sexual assault an important part of creating a culture that is free from harassment and sexual assault, without fear of retaliation.

With roughly two million living women Veterans, increased awareness and dialogue about women Veterans is important within the VA and the greater community. The I Am Not Invisible campaign began in February 2017 in Portland, Oregon with the vision to bring awareness about the barriers and challenges that women Veterans face in obtaining health care and other services.

If you are a woman veteran who is not using the VA services you may deserve, you can find out more about those services at the CWA website. If you need help navigating the VA system, Arizonans can find help with Rally Point, AZ, an initiative of La Frontera Arizona in partnership with the Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services. The non-profit is a safety net for veterans, service members and their families mainly staffed by veterans.