AS MORE AND MORE BARRIERS TO SERVICE FALL, women are entering the military in record numbers. They now represent 20 percent of new recruits and, according to current estimates, will make up 10 percent of the vet- eran population by 2018.  Already, more than 2 million women veterans live in the U.S. Of that number, 650,000 have registered with the VA. In FY 2015, “450,000 used us for health care,” says Patricia Hayes, the VA’s chief consul- tant for women’s health services. “That is more than dou- ble what we had a decade ago, and we expect that number to continue to rise very rapidly.”


Meeting the needs of this growing population is a priority for the VA. “Over the last few years, we’ve taken a huge number of steps to try to get our whole system really ramped up to care for women veterans,” says Sally Haskell, the VA’s deputy chief consul- tant for women’s health services. “The VA has come so far in really


recognizing women veterans and im- proving services for women veterans, but it’s not where it needs to be,” says Jackie Maffucci, research director for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. “We want to keep talking about this issue, keep pushing it for- ward, elevating it and expanding the conversation and really focusing not only on the VA and DoD but also on Congress and the nation to recognize that our force is changing.”


Her-story Deborah Sampson served in George Washington’s army in the Revolu- tionary War, disguised as a man. Her


98 MILITARY OFFICER MARCH 2016


gender was discovered only after she was wounded. What’s surpris- ing isn’t that the discovery ended her military career but, rather, that she received an honorable discharge and a military pension from the Continental Congress. Women always have played a part in the nation’s military history. “Women have been in wars more than people realize,” says Cmdr. René Cam- pos, USN (Ret), a deputy director of Government Rela- tions at MOAA. “But they’ve never gotten the recognition.” Not until 1980


realize. But they’ve never gotten the recognition.


more than people “


Women have been in wars


— Cmdr. René Campos, USN (Ret), MOAA


” Government Relations


did the U.S. Cen- sus ask American women if they had served. The first time the ques- tion was asked, 1.2 million women checked the box marked yes.


Relatively few of those newly identified veterans were taking ad- vantage of the benefits to which they were entitled, however, so Congress and the VA began reaching out — to them and to the public — in an effort to increase awareness regarding the services available to women veterans as well as to women in the military. In 1983, Con-


gress mandated the VA establish an Advisory Com- mittee on Women Veterans. The committee, which remains a pow- erful voice for women veterans, not only was tasked with deter- mining the needs


of women veterans in relation to VA programs and services but also was empowered to make recommenda- tions for change.


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