Women Warriors Initiative Report, Wounded Warrior Project, March 2021 (PDF)

Previous Wounded Warrior Project® (WWP) research found that women warriors experience military sexual trauma (MST), anxiety, and depression at higher rates than male warriors. To gain a deeper understanding of these issues, WWP developed the Women Warriors Initiative to better understand, empower, and advocate for these women warriors who have served our nation.

Key points include:

  • In many cases, warriors felt unprepared or even unwilling to transition, leaving some with a negative impression of their military service and a reluctance to access or trust Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) resources.
  • Women warriors universally agreed that preparation for civilian careers must begin sooner and cover more comprehensive topics than currently offered by DoD and VA… The TAP sessions women found most productive were those offering resume training and practice interviewing.
  • For those in rural communities, scarcity of providers contributes to inconsistent care… More must be done to increase ease of access to gender-specific health care in rural or underserved communities.

 

Women in the Military: Transition, Employment, and Higher Education After Service, Institute for Veterans and Military Families, March 2020

“This infographic provides key highlights on women in the military. The information in this document comes from our various data collection efforts centered on transition, employment, entrepreneurship, and higher education… Women in the Military Populations… Community Connectedness… Earnings… Entrepreneurship… Educational Attainment…”

Key points include:

  • 33% of female veteran respondents reported it took less than 3 months to find employment, compared to 41% of male veterans
  • 54% of female veteran respondents did not feel prepared to navigate resources in their local community, compared with 35% of male veteran respondents
  • Average earnings of female veteran respondents was $56,760, compared to $44,571 for female nonveterans

 

Women Veterans: The Journey Ahead, Disabled American Veterans, 2018 (PDF)

“Women, now eligible to compete for assignment in all military occupational specialties and positions, are the fastest-growing subpopulation of the military and veteran communities. They comprise almost 20 percent of the active-duty armed forces, Reserve and National Guard and 10 percent of the total veteran population… But the population of women in these communities is growing more rapidly than the systems we have in place to support them. This has created an environment in which—whether intentional or not—women’s service to the nation is often less recognized, less respected and less valued than their male counterparts… It has led to a culture that, in many ways, continues to tell women they don’t quite belong… DAV’s Women Veterans: The Journey Ahead follows our 2014 report Women Veterans: The Long Journey Home, giving credit for the work done and successes achieved while also spotlighting remaining needs and making recommendations for a road map forward…”

Key points include:

  • Overall, women veterans are adequately employed and have higher incomes than comparable civilian women at all ages.
  • Disabled women veterans and those in school still struggle with employment.
  • State efforts to help military service members transfer experience, training and certificates to the private sector have helped all veterans find meaningful employment after service.

 

Characteristics of Female Veterans-An Analytic View Across Age-Cohorts: 2015, U.S. Census Bureau, August 2017

“This brief examines the transition of female veterans from the military to civilian life. As there is no perfect measure of this transition, nor perfect data that align to the life course of veterans, this analysis uses three different age snapshots as career proxies to deter­mine if female veterans are different from nonveterans throughout their working ages, or if the differences are more prominent at the early stage of the transition from military to civilian life. The data used in this brief are from the 2015 American Community Survey (ACS) 1-year estimates and represent the civilian population of women 18 to 64 years old living in the United States… The ACS does not have a measure of years of work experience, therefore age is being used as a proxy in this brief. Women are categorized by age groups that correspond with approximate career stages. Women between the ages of 18 to 34 were considered early-career, those between the ages of 35 to 44 were mid-career, and those 45 to 64 years old were late-career…”

Key points include:

  • Early-career female veterans were older, married, have a child in the household, and enrolled in college at higher rates than early-career female nonveterans.
  • Mid- and late-career female veterans were more likely to be enrolled in college and to have a Bachelor’s degree or higher compared with similarly aged nonveterans.
  • Female veterans, in all age groups, were more likely to be employed, work full-time, year-round, work in the government, and have higher median earnings than their nonveteran counterparts.