Women Veterans in America: Breaking Barriers, Facing Challenges

As of 2025, more than 2 million women veterans live in the United States—a number that continues to grow as women make up a larger percentage of the Armed Forces. Representing approximately 10% of the total veteran population, women veterans are trailblazers, leaders, and public servants who often face unique challenges both during and after military service.

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Fast Facts & Key Statistics

• Demographics:

  
  

  • Women comprise 17% of active-duty personnel and about 21% of new VA enrollees.

  • Women veterans are more racially and ethnically diverse than male veterans.

  • The fastest-growing group of veterans are post-9/11 women veterans.

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• Health & Mental Health:

  
  

  • Women veterans are more likely than male veterans to experience PTSD, often related to combat and military sexual trauma (MST).

  • VA data shows that 1 in 3 women veterans report MST, though many incidents go unreported.

  • The VA has expanded gender-specific care, but access gaps still exist, especially in rural areas.

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• Homelessness & Economic Stability:

  
  

  • Women veterans are twice as likely as non-veteran women to experience homelessness.

  • Risk factors include unemployment, lack of childcare, trauma, and gender-based violence.

  • Many women veterans are single mothers, further increasing vulnerability.

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• Education & Employment:

  
  

  • Women veterans are more likely to have a college degree than their male counterparts.

  • Despite higher educational attainment, they often earn less and face challenges translating military experience to civilian jobs.

  • Entrepreneurship is rising: thousands of women veterans have launched successful businesses, supported by SBA programs and nonprofits.

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• Benefits Access:

  
  

  • Women veterans historically underutilize VA benefits due to lack of awareness or mistrust.

  • Efforts are underway to close this gap, including targeted outreach, legal aid, and trauma-informed services.

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Policy & Advocacy Progress

In recent years, Congress and the VA have taken steps to address systemic issues, including:

• Expanding women’s health services at VA facilities

• Funding specialized housing programs for homeless women veterans

• Improving MST reporting and prevention protocols

• Supporting caregivers and single mothers through wraparound services

But significant disparities remain—especially for women of color, LGBTQ+ veterans, and those with disabilities or service-connected injuries.

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The Path Forward

To truly support women veterans, we must:

• Ensure equitable access to all veteran services

• Fund programs that address intersections of trauma, caregiving, and economic insecurity

• Train VA staff in gender-competent care

• Empower women veterans as leaders, advocates, and mentors in their communities

🎗️ Final Thought

Women veterans have served with distinction, strength, and sacrifice. Now it’s time for the nation to fully serve them back.

📢 Learn more about our advocacy for justice and disability reform at

🔗 www.covenantofcourage.com

📝 Sign the petition: https://chng.it/5yXYvkBtMR

📬 Contact: support@reasonableranks.org

Maybe Your Path Is Harder Because Your Calling Is Higher

Some paths are steeper. Some storms last longer. And some burdens feel heavier than anyone else’s around you. You might be wondering why your road seems tougher—why your progress feels slower, your battles fiercer, and your setbacks more frequent.

But maybe… just maybe… your path is harder because your calling is higher.

The Weight of Purpose

Those with a higher calling often carry a heavier load—not as punishment, but as preparation. Think of steel forged in fire, or leaders forged in hardship. The heat isn’t there to destroy you. It’s there to refine you.

While others may walk a smoother road, your path demands resilience, integrity, and grit. Not because you’re weak—but because you’re being shaped for impact. Your story will inspire. Your fight will lift others. And your scars? They’ll serve as maps for those walking behind you.

Resistance Is Confirmation

Obstacles are often the signposts that you’re on the right track. The resistance you feel? It’s not always something to avoid—it might be the very proof that your mission matters.

Every great leader, visionary, or changemaker has walked through fire. They weren’t chosen because it was easy. They were chosen because they had the strength to endure, to rise, and to lead others.

When It Feels Too Heavy—Look Up

In the moments when it feels like too much, when the burden feels unfair, remember: you’re not being buried. You’re being planted.

Growth takes time. Purpose takes pressure. And the ones called to lift others must first learn how to carry the weight.

So, take heart. You are not behind. You are not lost. You are rising through the proving ground of purpose.

Your Struggle Is a Signal

You were never meant for average. The grind, the grief, the grindstone—it’s all chiseling away at your future greatness.

Don’t quit on the hard days. Don’t compare your chapter one to someone else’s chapter twenty. And don’t let the pain of the process blind you to the promise of your purpose.

Because maybe your path is harder…

…because your calling is higher.

Reassignment vs. Discharge: What Veterans Actually Need

By Covenant of Courage – #ReasonableRanks Campaign

When a service member becomes injured, ill, or non-deployable, the military faces a critical decision: reassign or discharge? That choice is more than a paperwork formality—it determines a veteran’s future, dignity, and ability to recover. Unfortunately, current military policy overwhelmingly leans toward discharge, often leaving those who served with shattered purpose, lost benefits, and an uphill civilian struggle.

It doesn’t have to be this way. What veterans actually need is reassignment—not rejection.

💥 The Problem with Discharge

Each year, thousands of service members are medically discharged not because of misconduct, but because of injuries, mental health conditions, or identity-related barriers that limit deployability. Many of these individuals want to continue serving in non-combat roles—logistics, training, administration, IT, emergency management—but are instead removed from service entirely.

The consequences?

• Loss of military income and housing

• Loss of identity, community, and mission

• Higher risk of suicide, homelessness, and isolation

• Increased mental health decline and stigma

• Barriers to accessing earned benefits

💡 The Case for Reassignment

Reassignment acknowledges a simple truth: not all warriors wear the same uniform, carry a rifle, or deploy abroad. Some fight their battles behind the scenes—in classrooms, operations centers, and crisis management hubs.

Reassignment would:

✅ Preserve the dignity of wounded and disabled service members

✅ Retain institutional knowledge and experience

✅ Uphold the promise of no one left behind

✅ Align with ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) values

✅ Support recovery and continued contribution to the mission

There are hundreds of vital military roles that do not require deployment or strenuous physical demands. Yet, service members with minor profiles or manageable conditions are discharged, rather than given a pathway to continue serving in a modified role.

📊 What the Data Shows

According to the Defense Health Agency, over 150,000 service members have been discharged since 2001 due to medical or psychological conditions, many of which could have been accommodated. Studies also show that veterans discharged involuntarily face higher rates of unemployment and suicide within five years of separation.

🎯 What Veterans Are Asking For

Veterans across the nation are not asking for pity. They’re asking for policy reform that reflects reality:

• A national reassignment policy for non-deployable personnel

• Independent legal and medical review boards for discharge decisions

• Integration of ADA and Section 504 compliance into military HR protocols

• Protection from stigma, retaliation, and career-ending labels

✊ It’s Time for a Fair Discharge Policy

The #ReasonableRanks campaign is fighting for a new approach—one that values wounded service members and gives them the option to serve with honor in new capacities. Discharge shouldn’t be the default. Reassignment should be the first question asked.

📣 Support the Movement:

📩 Contact us: support@reasonableranks.org

🖊️ Sign the petition: https://chng.it/5yXYvkBtMR

🌐 Learn more: www.covenantofcourage.com

Veterans stood for us. Now we must stand for them.

Reassignment gives them purpose. Discharge leaves them behind.

Let’s choose courage. Let’s choose justice. Let’s choose change.

#ReasonableRanks #VeteranJustice #DisabilityRights #ReformTheDischarge #CovenantOfCourage #MilitaryReform #FairDischargeNow #HoldTheDoDAccountable #NoOneLeftBehind #ADACompliance #LeadWithPurpose