Making military and Veteran women (in) visible: The continuity of gendered experiences in military-to-civilian transition

M Eichler - Journal of Military, Veteran and Family Health, 2022 - jmvfh.utpjournals.press
Journal of Military, Veteran and Family Health, 2022jmvfh.utpjournals.press
LAY SUMMARY This study explores how gender and sex shape the military-to-civilian
transition (MCT) for women. Thirty-three Canadian women Veterans were interviewed about
their military service and post-military life. MCT research often emphasizes discontinuities
between military and civilian life, but women Veterans' accounts highlight continuities in
gendered experiences. Military women are expected to fit the male norm and masculine
ideal of the military member during service, but they are rarely recognized as Veterans after …
LAY SUMMARY
This study explores how gender and sex shape the military-to-civilian transition (MCT) for women. Thirty-three Canadian women Veterans were interviewed about their military service and post-military life. MCT research often emphasizes discontinuities between military and civilian life, but women Veterans’ accounts highlight continuities in gendered experiences. Military women are expected to fit the male norm and masculine ideal of the military member during service, but they are rarely recognized as Veterans after service. Women experience invisibility as military members and Veterans and simultaneously hypervisibility as (ex)military women who do not fit military or civilian gender norms. Gendered expectations of women as spouses and mothers exert an undue burden on them as serving members and as Veterans undergoing MCT. Women encounter care and support systems set up on the normative assumption of the military and Veteran man supported by a female spouse. The study findings point to a needed redesign of military and Veteran systems to remove sex and gender biases and better respond to the sex- and gender-specific MCT needs of women.
University of Toronto Press
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