There are more women enlisting in the military and, as a result, the Veterans Administration (VA) is experiencing an increase in women veteran's utilization of healthcare services. This study examined the factors that facilitate and/or impede women veterans with a substance use disorder seeking VA substance use treatment. The current study examined predisposing, enabling, and need factors related to utilization of VA substance use treatment. An intact dataset of 1004 participants were utilized in addition to a subset of 143 women veterans with a substance use disorder who sought substance use treatment. Predisposing factors significantly differentiated women veterans with and with a substance use disorder. A significant difference was not found between severity of substance use diagnosis and health insurance status. Marital status and socio-economic status were the only predictor variables that significantly predicted women veterans with a substance use disorder and utilization of VA substance use treatment. The results provide mixed support related to previous research. Future directions for research are discussed.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2007 / Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment for the degree of Master of Social Work. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 63-68).

The aim of the current study is to understand the health trajectory of female veterans who participated in a VHA sponsored weight management program and explore possible barriers to sustained weight loss and improved metabolic functioning over time. Obesity is a major health concern for discharged service members and women veterans in particular are faced with an increasing prevalence of obesity at a younger age with obese ethnic minorities posing the greatest health risk over time. The current study measured body mass index (BMI), triglycerides, and total cholesterol in female participants enrolled in the MOVE! ® Weight Management Program for Veterans at the Miami VAHS from 2005-2008 (N = 170). The sample was derived from an archival data set and participants were predominantly non-Hispanic Black (NHB) (n = 93, 54.7%), with a mean age of 48.26 (SD = 11.77) and BMI of 34.97 (SD = 6.61) at program entry. Medical information was gathered as part of routine primary care and participants were not asked to provide additional information. Multilevel modeling was utilized to measure change in BMI, triglycerides, and total cholesterol across seven time points before and after MOVE! ® participation. For the piecewise model, results showed a positive linear growth pattern in BMI prior to program enrollment, SE = .12, p < .001, and a negative linear pattern post-intervention, SE = .08, p = .05. For the continuous models, significant differences in triglycerides were observed between ethnic groups at program entry, but overall triglycerides did not significantly change over time. A significant negative linear effect was found for total cholesterol, SE = 1.08, p < .001. Age was found to be a significant negative predictor of triglycerides, SE = .003, p = .008, and total cholesterol, SE = .27, p = .003. VA user status, small sample size, and other extraneous lifestyle factors not directly measured in the current study may explain the lack of significant differences in BMI found between ethnic groups relative to literature on weight loss outcomes. Additionally, BMI in women may underestimate their total fat, which for the present study may explain why larger improvements in metabolic functioning were not observed. Future designs may consider measuring waist circumference to understand the complex relationship between total fat distribution and markers for poor health and utilizing a tailored approach to weight management.

In my dissertation, I analyze the implications of public memories used to encourage the forgetting of women veterans’ war efforts and offer up a critical praxis of remembering differently in order to challenge normative memorial practices. Remembering differently is informed by rhetorical and feminist theories because it is a critical performance that reclaims forgotten memories; interrogates systems of power, such as gender; and seeks to add to, edit, reread, and remember public memories of individuals who have been silenced, erased, and appropriated. I argue that prevailing war memorialization of women bolsters nationalistic and patriarchal ideologies by framing female veterans as only being trailblazing patriots who have broken the glass ceiling, while downplaying servicewomen’s lived experiences with PTSD, sexual assault, sexism, and job discrimination in the military. As a result, these depoliticized memories reinforce hegemonic beliefs that situate social, political, and economical injustices in the past rather than as present day concerns. In each chapter, I analyze how U.S. female veterans are remembering differently their military experiences with personal memories of war in public performances. The veterans’ acts of commemoration move beyond the heroic narrative of warriors breaking down barriers and interrogate issues relevant to female soldiers like sexism, assault, job discrimination, PTSD, and homelessness. My thesis is not simply advocating for “more remembering” in order to achieve some semblance of equality, because I do not believe more representation necessarily results in more pronounced individual rights. Rather, my purpose is to examine the rhetorical functions, opportunities, and constraints of remembering differently, in particular, for female veterans who are actively articulating patriotic and dissenting commemorative discourses.

The purpose of the following study was to evaluate sexual trauma and the effects on women veteran's quality of life ratings and current and past coping strategies. Participants were screened for sexual trauma history and divided into five mutually exclusive categories: 1)childhood sexual trauma, 2)civilian adult sexual trauma, 3)military sexual trauma, 4)multiple sexual trauma, and 5)no sexual trauma. Results of the study were mixed, retaining some hypotheses and rejecting others. Results regarding differences in QOL for the sexual trauma groups were rejected, as none of the QOL analyses were significant. Issues of small effect size for the QOL measure and low power to detect differences are discussed as limitations in the current study. Several significant findings were detected in the coping analyses. As predicted, the no trauma group was found to use significantly more approach coping strategies than the sexual trauma group for the past problem. Additionally, the sexual trauma group used significantly more avoidant coping techniques for past problem than the no trauma group. No between group differences were detected for sexual trauma type, however, several significant differences emerged in the comparisons of the multiple sexual trauma and military sexual trauma group's past coping compared to the no sexual trauma group's coping strategies. For past coping, the no trauma group used more approach strategies than the military or multiple trauma group. Past and current significant CRI subscale differences were also detected. Results regarding the relationship between QOL and CRI were rejected, as the two scales were not found to correlate significantly. Trauma history and avoidant coping were also nonsignificant predictors for General Life Satisfaction on the QOL measure. Additional exploratory analyses are presented as well as implications for research, theory and clinical practice.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The primary objective of this pilot study was to understand the military experiences of OEF/OIF women veterans. Seven women veterans described accounts of sexual harassment and sexual assault, also known in the Veteran Health Administration (VHA) context as Military Sexual Trauma (MST). The prevalence and dialogue of MST both explicitly and implicitly throughout all the interviews justified examining MST on its own. As an alternative to tracking new cases of MST, this thesis provides an examination of the rhetoric of betrayal and suggests that objective knowledge of MST does not exist apart from such social conditions and one’s interpretations of them. Betrayal emerged as the way in which women veterans understood and made meaning of their MST experiences during the claims-making process. Women veterans incorporated strategies to manage the sexual harassment and sexual assault they experienced while in the military environment, since reporting MST was actively discouraged. Findings from this study suggest that the way we approach and understand MST as a social problem needs to be reconsidered and further examined.

Institutions of higher education are a key pathway for supplying the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce. Military service members have been identified as STEM-ready and a potential pool for STEM as they transition into civilian careers. Furthermore, women are the fastest growing subpopulation of veterans and may decrease the gender gap within STEM. Higher education researchers are interested in understanding the characteristics and experiences of students who select STEM majors and then persist to graduation. Literature related to women veterans is limited and a qualitative case study approach was utilized to achieve an in-depth understanding of their college experiences. This study examined four women who were successfully navigating STEM majors at one institution and revealed their varying motivations for enrollment and persistence. Three themes generated from this study included: self-awareness, success is personal, and military experience matters. Subsidiary themes included starting over; strategy; salience of age; stage of life; self-advocacy; standards; personal attributes; past experiences; personal responsibility for learning; procuring resources; career path (STEM) reinforced or introduced; creditable and credible; and cultivated soft skills. Veteran critical theory, multiple dimensions of identity and intersectionality were useful frameworks to reference as participants expressed the influence of their identities on their life and military experiences. The findings illuminate ways institutions of higher education can facilitate women veterans' success as students, supplying much needed diversity to the STEM pipeline.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1990. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [146]-162).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Iowa, 2009. / Thesis supervisor: James C. Torner. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 52-56).

As issues of gender inequality in the military are addressed, women will continue to fill jobs traditionally occupied by men, and ultimately take on a greater percentage of leadership responsibility. For these reasons, women will remain the fastest growing population within our active duty forces. An increased need for research, advocacy, and resources for programs and services designed specifically for women veterans is necessary in order to prepare for an upsurge in the numbers of women who will be seeking services in the years to come. This research utilized a feminist ethnographic approach for data collection and analysis. Data was collected using mixed methods consisting of an online survey (n=915), telephone interviews with women veterans and community reintegration specialists (n=31), and participant observation at veteran focused events. This study provides an in depth understanding of US women veterans’ experiences both in the military and after, emphasizing the different gendered experiences of participants. Among the many findings, I conclude that women veterans negotiated and performed gender in a way that worked for them within the professional militarized environments that they were a part of. However, upon leaving the military, many experience challenges associated with having to renegotiate gender, often times in civilian workplace settings where traditional aspects of masculinity and femininity are still upheld as societal norms. This research is meant to contribute to a growing body of literature on veteran transition and help fill the existing gap in anthropology of the military on the intersections of gender, gendered role-making, and military service. It will be of interest to lawmakers, policy experts, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and community stakeholders tasked with identifying the short-term and long-term challenges affecting women veterans as they enter civilian life after service, and how to appropriately tailor programs and services to meet the needs of the population.