2015 Association for Women in Psychology Conference

Female soldiers are still an extreme minority in the military, constituting approximately 14.5% of the total US Armed Forces. Thus, regardless of the official policy of nondiscrimination, they are often treated differently than man, both socially and professionally. They are not, almost by definition, “brothers in arms” and this kind of societal attitude continues after they leave military service. Multiple research shows that even though war has a traumatic impact on soldiers regardless of their gender, women are more likely to be homeless, divorced, or raising children as single parents (Gamache, 2003) and are at a higher risk to commit suicide (McFarland, 2010). Women-veterans are one of the fastest growing segments of the veteran population, yet, their needs are habitually overlooked. The consequences of prevailing stereotype that suggests all veterans are men are emotionally devastating for women who sacrificed so much for their country. Disabled women veterans are not perceived as wounded warriors and they are told to cover their prosthesis because they are scaring children. A woman-veteran is informed that she is not a ‘real’ veteran, simply because she is a woman. Some women veterans who display their pride of the service (T-shirt, bumper-sticker) are told by strangers to say “thank you for your service” to their (civilian) husbands. Yet another are automatically assumed to be civilian military dependents when they come to the VA hospital (all examples are real stories shared by women-veterans). Such a negative stereotype was already acknowledged by VA, which attempts to change it through their “Please, don’t call me Mister” campaign. In addition, the amount of research on both active duty and veteran women steadily increases. The goal of the current review is to summarize the works in this vitally important area and identify remaining gaps and needs for future empirical work.