Citation

Meade V. J. Veterans Stud. 2020; 6(3): 47-53.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Virginia Tech Publishing)

DOI

10.21061/jvs.v6i3.218

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Women veterans are the fastest-growing population of veterans, yet women still face many barriers while serving and after leaving the military. An often-overlooked aspect in research and literature is how women develop their identity as veterans from their experiences of racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, and other forms of oppression and discrimination while serving in the military and the invisibility or the lack of recognition as veterans after returning to civilian life. Few articles in the literature discuss intersectionality theory or framework in connection to military and women veterans' experience or the role of identity formation as a veteran due to these experiences or how it impacts women veterans' health outcomes. In this article, the role of institutional betrayal is explored as an additional barrier for women veterans as well as the intersectionality framework applied to the military as an institution. As the need for services for women veterans increase, understanding the impact of these intersections of identity and experiences of discrimination and oppression can be crucial in understanding the complexity of identifying as veterans and living in a society that does not see or value their experiences, as women or as veterans.
Keywords: Women veterans, Intersectionality, Identity

Language: en