Abstract
Female service members are vital members of the military in the United States and have been heavily deployed, along with male service members since the Persian Gulf War. Although the number of women in the military has increased substantially in recent years, women have always fought in the nation’s wars. Overall, there are fewer statistics and data on the experience of women in the military when compared to men.
Technically speaking, it has only been recently that women could serve in combat as “war fighters,” with the repeal of the combat exclusion rule. However, in the recent conflicts, female service members have frequently been involved in firefights. Military women comprise a high proportion of medical personnel who deploy with medical units where they are exposed to a great deal of the consequences of war.
An important goal of this book was to gather available data and, when lacking, to fill in with anecdotal information. The book is an edited volume that examines the biological, psychological, and social consequences for women who are in combat and combat areas. As editors and contributing authors, Drs. Ritchie and Naclerio provide an in-depth examination of the medical issues and unique biological consequences for women who deploy. Some of these are unavoidable, experienced by male and female service members alike. Other consequences are avoidable. For example, the book discusses how uniforms and protective gear were designed primarily for male service members, causing increased risk for infections and injury for women. As described by Drs. Ritchie and Naclerio, the services are now developing equipment specifically adapted to women’s bodies. Although men also experience military sexual trauma and intimate partner violence, female service members experience a higher proportion of such violence, and the authors provide a thorough examination of both issues.
Although most of the book address women’s experiences in combat while serving in the U.S. military, much of the content is relevant to women from other countries who deploy while serving in their nation’s military. The book is structured by five parts, with Part 1 providing background and overview, demographics, and description of women serving in Australia’s military. Part 2 examines many of the medical issues and social challenges women confront while at war. In Part 3, Drs. Ritchie and Naclerio critically discuss the social and emotional challenges women confront when they return from war, including reuniting with loved ones and children. The chapter on gender differences on traumatic brain injury summarizes the state of the art, pointing out the need for more research. Psychological issues are addressed in Part 4, specifically, suicide and intimate partner violence. Part 5 discusses women veterans’ concerns and available resources through veterans’ services. The prevalence of women veterans’ mental health concerns and barriers to care are also included. The book’s final chapter provides an historical overview of gender differences in compensation, benefits, and pensions for women veterans with disabilities, beginning with the colonial era to the present.
This edited volume covers the breadth of women’s experiences at war, bringing together data that are not often found in similar books or articles. One of the book’s limitations is the absence of information on the experiences of female gay, bisexual as well as transgendered service members. As pointed out by the editors, it is difficult to find someone to author such a chapter, which in itself highlights the issues of stigma, discrimination, and potential reprisals. From a womanist perspective, there is little attention paid to racial and ethnic differences among women at war though racial and ethnic minority women experience greater social and emotional consequences than their white counterparts serving in the military.
From a social work perspective, the book gives equal weight to women’s physical, medical, social, and emotional consequences of being at war. Social work educators will find the book to be an essential resource in helping students understand women’s unique concerns when going to war. Overall, the authors make a valuable contribution to the professional literature that can be useful to practitioners, educators, and researchers alike.