1
00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:03,000
Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.

2
00:00:03,240 --> 00:00:10,000
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff Mom never told you?

3
00:00:10,200 --> 00:00:18,040
Speaker 1: From House Towards dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast.

4
00:00:18,120 --> 00:00:21,320
Speaker 1: This is Molly and I'm Kristen and Kristen. As you know,

5
00:00:21,480 --> 00:00:23,920
Speaker 1: this week we were captivated by some articles that came

6
00:00:23,960 --> 00:00:27,840
Speaker 1: out in the New York Times about UM women's soldiers.

7
00:00:28,200 --> 00:00:31,320
Speaker 1: One article is called g I Jane Breaks the Combat Barrier,

8
00:00:31,760 --> 00:00:36,000
Speaker 1: but was Zette Alvarez lever headline. And there was called

9
00:00:36,080 --> 00:00:38,760
Speaker 1: Living and Fighting Alongside Men and Fitting In by Stephen

10
00:00:38,840 --> 00:00:41,800
Speaker 1: Lee Myers, and both of these articles talk about the

11
00:00:41,920 --> 00:00:45,520
Speaker 1: great strides that women soldiers are making in combat in

12
00:00:45,520 --> 00:00:48,479
Speaker 1: Iraq and Afghanistan and also kind of how on the

13
00:00:48,479 --> 00:00:51,080
Speaker 1: flip side of that, how the military is having to

14
00:00:51,880 --> 00:00:56,520
Speaker 1: readjust to accommodate more women um in more roles in

15
00:00:56,560 --> 00:00:59,280
Speaker 1: the military as well. What these writers are putting forward

16
00:00:59,320 --> 00:01:01,880
Speaker 1: is that these are the first real wars where women

17
00:01:01,920 --> 00:01:04,280
Speaker 1: have had a role in the actual combat. You know,

18
00:01:04,280 --> 00:01:06,760
Speaker 1: there is obviously a long history of women being involved

19
00:01:07,240 --> 00:01:09,399
Speaker 1: in the military in some form or another. Of course,

20
00:01:09,400 --> 00:01:11,400
Speaker 1: there are women who dressed up as men to fight,

21
00:01:11,880 --> 00:01:14,080
Speaker 1: but these are the first ones where women are really

22
00:01:14,080 --> 00:01:16,600
Speaker 1: getting in there. And they're attributing this to just sort

23
00:01:16,640 --> 00:01:19,600
Speaker 1: of the changing nature of these wars. There is no

24
00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:23,280
Speaker 1: actual front line. Um, you have a lot more risk

25
00:01:23,360 --> 00:01:26,759
Speaker 1: of say like roadside bombs and things like that. It's

26
00:01:26,800 --> 00:01:30,200
Speaker 1: just a whole different, whole different type of warfare going on. Right,

27
00:01:30,240 --> 00:01:32,280
Speaker 1: you could pretty much, you know, always get shot at.

28
00:01:32,319 --> 00:01:35,640
Speaker 1: So there's no front line. But previously the front line

29
00:01:35,680 --> 00:01:38,160
Speaker 1: was this place that was just completely off limit to women.

30
00:01:38,200 --> 00:01:41,080
Speaker 1: Thanks to some regulations put in place by the military. Yeah,

31
00:01:41,120 --> 00:01:45,880
Speaker 1: women um have not have been barred from joining combat branches, uh,

32
00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:50,920
Speaker 1: including the infantry, armor, special Forces, and most field artillery units,

33
00:01:51,400 --> 00:01:55,320
Speaker 1: and um from doing some support jobs in smaller units

34
00:01:55,440 --> 00:01:59,160
Speaker 1: as well. And to change these these policies would require

35
00:01:59,200 --> 00:02:03,600
Speaker 1: congressional ball And even when women started making these big strides,

36
00:02:03,640 --> 00:02:07,680
Speaker 1: you know, really distinguishing themselves in combat, then President Bush

37
00:02:07,720 --> 00:02:10,320
Speaker 1: essentially said, you know, there will be no women in combat.

38
00:02:10,800 --> 00:02:13,280
Speaker 1: And one of the main reasons cited for not allowing

39
00:02:13,320 --> 00:02:16,160
Speaker 1: women in the infantry and on these front lines of

40
00:02:16,200 --> 00:02:21,440
Speaker 1: combat is women's lack of upper body strength. And um,

41
00:02:21,480 --> 00:02:23,760
Speaker 1: I would have to say, just kind of the stereotypical

42
00:02:24,120 --> 00:02:27,200
Speaker 1: you know, gender roles of women as you know, the

43
00:02:27,280 --> 00:02:30,960
Speaker 1: gentler sex, if you will, um, simply not you know,

44
00:02:31,080 --> 00:02:34,440
Speaker 1: being fit to be in in such a high pressure area, right.

45
00:02:34,480 --> 00:02:36,680
Speaker 1: And I think there's also this worry that the American

46
00:02:36,720 --> 00:02:39,440
Speaker 1: public will just be furious if they see someone's mother

47
00:02:39,520 --> 00:02:42,160
Speaker 1: come home in a coffin. Obviously seeing anyone come from

48
00:02:42,200 --> 00:02:45,440
Speaker 1: in a coffin is tragic and awful, but is there

49
00:02:45,480 --> 00:02:47,560
Speaker 1: some sort of conception that people have that it's even

50
00:02:47,600 --> 00:02:51,040
Speaker 1: worse if it's as Kristen said, the gentler sex. Yeah,

51
00:02:51,080 --> 00:02:54,959
Speaker 1: but um, there have been um more opportunities for women

52
00:02:55,320 --> 00:02:58,080
Speaker 1: um in the military. For instance, that one of the

53
00:02:58,160 --> 00:02:59,960
Speaker 1: articles New York Times articles and all that you were

54
00:03:00,040 --> 00:03:03,520
Speaker 1: talking about, mentions that the Marine Corps UM, which is

55
00:03:03,520 --> 00:03:05,919
Speaker 1: a very you know, think of as a very typically

56
00:03:06,040 --> 00:03:09,480
Speaker 1: macho branch in the military, um opened up two more

57
00:03:09,560 --> 00:03:13,840
Speaker 1: categories of intelligence jobs for women, specifically because of their

58
00:03:13,880 --> 00:03:17,760
Speaker 1: important contributions in Iraq and Afghanistan. And I think that

59
00:03:18,040 --> 00:03:20,640
Speaker 1: other branches of the military sort of just finding ways

60
00:03:20,680 --> 00:03:23,480
Speaker 1: to get around these rules. For example, you can't be

61
00:03:23,560 --> 00:03:26,919
Speaker 1: assigned to a combat unit. But what they're doing was

62
00:03:26,960 --> 00:03:28,400
Speaker 1: a little bit of word smith thing and saying these

63
00:03:28,400 --> 00:03:30,600
Speaker 1: women are attached to those units, and then you know,

64
00:03:30,639 --> 00:03:32,880
Speaker 1: as those units pretty much just find themselves in the

65
00:03:32,919 --> 00:03:35,240
Speaker 1: midst of it, all the women can serve and by

66
00:03:35,280 --> 00:03:37,880
Speaker 1: all accounts New York Times, Washington Post, a few other

67
00:03:37,960 --> 00:03:41,440
Speaker 1: articles who read these women are serving with tremendous courage

68
00:03:41,480 --> 00:03:43,960
Speaker 1: and just making you know, a real name for women

69
00:03:43,960 --> 00:03:46,920
Speaker 1: in the military, with their bravery, their valor. I can't

70
00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:50,680
Speaker 1: use enough great words describe these accomplishments. Yeah, absolutely and

71
00:03:50,800 --> 00:03:53,520
Speaker 1: um and because of this, there has been more lobbying,

72
00:03:53,840 --> 00:03:57,920
Speaker 1: due to Pentagon, into Congress to open up more roles

73
00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:00,000
Speaker 1: for women so they don't to get around the side

74
00:04:00,040 --> 00:04:02,280
Speaker 1: DOEA have attached versus a signed because these women are

75
00:04:02,280 --> 00:04:05,080
Speaker 1: doing their jobs. They're in high pressure areas a medic

76
00:04:05,240 --> 00:04:08,280
Speaker 1: on the streets in Baghdad, and you know, as arguably

77
00:04:08,480 --> 00:04:11,400
Speaker 1: as just at just as much risk as someone in

78
00:04:11,400 --> 00:04:14,480
Speaker 1: a more frontline position somewhere else. In pointing to one

79
00:04:14,480 --> 00:04:17,560
Speaker 1: of the biggest accomplishments, the biggest milestones for women in

80
00:04:17,600 --> 00:04:20,479
Speaker 1: the military, in two thousand and eight, the first UM

81
00:04:20,640 --> 00:04:24,880
Speaker 1: woman forced our general was appointed, General An E. Dunwoodie.

82
00:04:25,080 --> 00:04:27,320
Speaker 1: And the interesting thing about that was a lot of

83
00:04:27,320 --> 00:04:29,880
Speaker 1: times UM forced our generals would have to go through.

84
00:04:30,160 --> 00:04:33,600
Speaker 1: UM would fight in a lot of combat situations in

85
00:04:33,680 --> 00:04:36,280
Speaker 1: order to earn all of their stars. But that would

86
00:04:36,320 --> 00:04:39,520
Speaker 1: be impossible for a woman to do because, like we said,

87
00:04:39,560 --> 00:04:42,960
Speaker 1: women are barred from frontline combat. And some of it's

88
00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:44,880
Speaker 1: you know, very tricky, like you know, there are certain

89
00:04:44,920 --> 00:04:46,800
Speaker 1: guns you can use, but you can't use other ones.

90
00:04:46,800 --> 00:04:49,640
Speaker 1: I mean, the the rules can seem a little bit arbitrary.

91
00:04:50,040 --> 00:04:53,000
Speaker 1: Right for instance, UM, according to this New York Times article,

92
00:04:53,320 --> 00:04:56,640
Speaker 1: women can serve as machine gunners on humpies, but can't

93
00:04:56,640 --> 00:05:00,080
Speaker 1: operate Bradley's UM. And they can work on some law

94
00:05:00,200 --> 00:05:04,000
Speaker 1: range artillery, but not short range ones. And women can

95
00:05:04,040 --> 00:05:07,800
Speaker 1: serve as military police on the streets of Iraq, but

96
00:05:08,040 --> 00:05:12,080
Speaker 1: not as members of the infantry. Right. So the women

97
00:05:12,120 --> 00:05:13,920
Speaker 1: who are really kind of breaking the bears are doing

98
00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:17,000
Speaker 1: so just by earning their colleagues respect. Very simple way

99
00:05:17,040 --> 00:05:19,800
Speaker 1: to get ahead. UM. And let's talk about how many

100
00:05:19,839 --> 00:05:23,400
Speaker 1: women very quickly are are involved. It's estimated that since

101
00:05:23,440 --> 00:05:27,120
Speaker 1: two thousand one, about two million Americans have fought overseas

102
00:05:27,160 --> 00:05:30,240
Speaker 1: to defend our freedom, and that two of them have

103
00:05:30,320 --> 00:05:34,200
Speaker 1: been women. That's about eleven percent, and one have died

104
00:05:34,279 --> 00:05:36,719
Speaker 1: and sixty six of those deaths were in combat. Yeah,

105
00:05:36,760 --> 00:05:40,719
Speaker 1: and that's more. That's more casualties women casualties than and

106
00:05:40,920 --> 00:05:44,600
Speaker 1: scoring to the Washington Post, I believe, um than Korean

107
00:05:45,080 --> 00:05:49,760
Speaker 1: Vietnam and the Gulf War combined. Yeah. So obviously we're

108
00:05:49,839 --> 00:05:52,160
Speaker 1: in the middle of a big sea change. Perhaps in

109
00:05:52,200 --> 00:05:55,359
Speaker 1: the military, perhaps the regulations might change at some point.

110
00:05:55,720 --> 00:05:58,720
Speaker 1: You know, in these articles, the women and also their

111
00:05:58,720 --> 00:06:01,640
Speaker 1: male superiors talk about they don't see how it can't

112
00:06:01,720 --> 00:06:06,039
Speaker 1: change after the accomplishments women have made in these two wars. Yeah,

113
00:06:06,040 --> 00:06:08,440
Speaker 1: and we are seeing more women in leadership roles um

114
00:06:08,560 --> 00:06:11,040
Speaker 1: right now. Even though women are making up only six

115
00:06:11,120 --> 00:06:14,479
Speaker 1: percent of the top military ranks. UM, it's more than

116
00:06:14,760 --> 00:06:18,560
Speaker 1: double the number a decade ago. So there have had

117
00:06:18,600 --> 00:06:21,600
Speaker 1: to be some changes to make this possible. You're more

118
00:06:21,640 --> 00:06:23,440
Speaker 1: likely to go to a base camp and see a

119
00:06:23,480 --> 00:06:27,839
Speaker 1: woman's bathroom, um, you know, separate spaces for showers. Medics

120
00:06:27,839 --> 00:06:32,560
Speaker 1: in the camp have seen their fair share of guidological patients.

121
00:06:33,080 --> 00:06:35,040
Speaker 1: And you know, one thing that was interesting in these

122
00:06:35,120 --> 00:06:38,040
Speaker 1: articles as they talked about the rates of pregnancy. Motherhood

123
00:06:38,080 --> 00:06:40,800
Speaker 1: has always been sort of this barrier to service, obviously

124
00:06:40,839 --> 00:06:42,560
Speaker 1: if they've got kids at home, but what happens if

125
00:06:42,560 --> 00:06:46,159
Speaker 1: they get pregnant during service. Um, Apparently some women soldiers

126
00:06:46,240 --> 00:06:49,000
Speaker 1: do get pregnant have to be shipped home within two weeks.

127
00:06:49,040 --> 00:06:51,560
Speaker 1: But you know, the Washington Post points out that it's

128
00:06:51,640 --> 00:06:54,520
Speaker 1: no more than rates of men who have to leave

129
00:06:54,520 --> 00:06:57,520
Speaker 1: service because of family issues at home. Right, And it's

130
00:06:57,520 --> 00:07:01,320
Speaker 1: now kind of an accepted fact that sex in the

131
00:07:01,360 --> 00:07:04,440
Speaker 1: military is going to happen. At some point, male and

132
00:07:04,480 --> 00:07:08,080
Speaker 1: female soldiers are going to co mingle. But I do

133
00:07:08,120 --> 00:07:12,000
Speaker 1: feel it's important to distinguish Christian that um, they're recognizing

134
00:07:12,040 --> 00:07:14,960
Speaker 1: consensual co mingling. And that brings me to you know,

135
00:07:15,160 --> 00:07:17,520
Speaker 1: part of the reason why these articles captivated me so much.

136
00:07:17,560 --> 00:07:19,600
Speaker 1: As you don't see a lot of positive news about

137
00:07:19,600 --> 00:07:22,400
Speaker 1: women the military. These articles talked about, you know, the

138
00:07:22,440 --> 00:07:24,400
Speaker 1: great strides they're making, but you see a lot more

139
00:07:24,480 --> 00:07:28,400
Speaker 1: articles about the real challenges they faced in terms of

140
00:07:28,440 --> 00:07:31,800
Speaker 1: sexual assault and rape. Yeah, there's been a pretty startling

141
00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:36,240
Speaker 1: UM Department of Defense report about sexual assault in the military.

142
00:07:36,320 --> 00:07:38,559
Speaker 1: It wasn't until I think it was two thousand and six,

143
00:07:38,600 --> 00:07:41,960
Speaker 1: while Donald Rumsfeld was still Secretary of Defense when the

144
00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:47,000
Speaker 1: military really started looking into this problem of UM sexual

145
00:07:47,040 --> 00:07:50,480
Speaker 1: assault in the military. And uh, For instance, according to

146
00:07:50,680 --> 00:07:54,560
Speaker 1: a CBS report um from earlier this year, one in

147
00:07:54,720 --> 00:07:58,520
Speaker 1: three female soldiers will experience sexual assault while serving in

148
00:07:58,560 --> 00:08:01,120
Speaker 1: the military, and that has compared aired to one in

149
00:08:01,280 --> 00:08:04,400
Speaker 1: six women in the civilian world. Even the New York

150
00:08:04,400 --> 00:08:07,280
Speaker 1: Times articles point out that the women have to sometimes carry,

151
00:08:07,600 --> 00:08:10,600
Speaker 1: you know, protection against their fellow soldiers with them. And

152
00:08:10,640 --> 00:08:13,680
Speaker 1: then we were reading this absolutely devastating Salon article by

153
00:08:13,680 --> 00:08:16,960
Speaker 1: Helen Benedett who talks about um you know, women soldiers

154
00:08:16,960 --> 00:08:20,200
Speaker 1: carrying knives not to defend themselves against Iraqi's but against

155
00:08:20,200 --> 00:08:23,680
Speaker 1: their fellow soldiers, and issues where women have been too

156
00:08:23,800 --> 00:08:25,720
Speaker 1: terrified to actually get up in the middle of the

157
00:08:25,800 --> 00:08:28,840
Speaker 1: night and go to the latrines to get some water

158
00:08:29,520 --> 00:08:33,080
Speaker 1: for fear of being attacked by by fellow soldiers like

159
00:08:33,160 --> 00:08:36,160
Speaker 1: you mentioned, And going back to that the Pentagon story,

160
00:08:36,160 --> 00:08:38,720
Speaker 1: when the reasons are the Pentagon study, one of the

161
00:08:38,720 --> 00:08:42,880
Speaker 1: reasons why it's gotten so many headlines this year is

162
00:08:42,920 --> 00:08:46,760
Speaker 1: because um it said that about twenty nine hundred sexual

163
00:08:46,800 --> 00:08:49,640
Speaker 1: assaults were reported last year, and that's up nearly nine

164
00:08:49,679 --> 00:08:52,760
Speaker 1: percent from the year before, and about two thirds of

165
00:08:52,760 --> 00:08:56,200
Speaker 1: those cases involved rape or aggravated assault. Now, I did

166
00:08:56,240 --> 00:08:59,160
Speaker 1: see UM as press release from the Department of Defense

167
00:08:59,240 --> 00:09:03,840
Speaker 1: talking about these statistics, and it attributes that nine percent

168
00:09:03,960 --> 00:09:07,600
Speaker 1: increase to the fact that more soldiers are simply more

169
00:09:07,679 --> 00:09:11,520
Speaker 1: aware of how to report sexual assault, and there's more

170
00:09:11,559 --> 00:09:14,600
Speaker 1: since there's more education about it and there's more supposedly

171
00:09:14,800 --> 00:09:18,959
Speaker 1: open um dialogue about sexual assault in the military and

172
00:09:19,040 --> 00:09:23,360
Speaker 1: understanding what exactly constitutes sexual assault. Um, the numbers are

173
00:09:23,400 --> 00:09:26,880
Speaker 1: going up because of higher reporting, right, But despite the

174
00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:29,520
Speaker 1: increase the number of reports, there's still a fairly low

175
00:09:29,640 --> 00:09:32,040
Speaker 1: number of these cases actually going to some sort of

176
00:09:32,080 --> 00:09:35,720
Speaker 1: military core and getting a conviction for the mail involved, Right, Molly.

177
00:09:35,800 --> 00:09:38,319
Speaker 1: If UM, if a soldier thinks that here she's been

178
00:09:38,360 --> 00:09:41,559
Speaker 1: sexually assaulted, they can report that to something called the

179
00:09:41,600 --> 00:09:46,080
Speaker 1: Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Unit. But within that there's

180
00:09:46,160 --> 00:09:50,600
Speaker 1: something called a restricted report that they can make, which

181
00:09:50,640 --> 00:09:53,640
Speaker 1: means that they can go and tell someone that they

182
00:09:53,640 --> 00:09:56,680
Speaker 1: think something, you know, did happen, that sexual assault did occur,

183
00:09:57,240 --> 00:10:01,360
Speaker 1: but investigation will not be open. So kind of like

184
00:10:01,400 --> 00:10:04,320
Speaker 1: you said, Um, even though people are coming forward and

185
00:10:04,520 --> 00:10:07,920
Speaker 1: um talking about these crimes that are happening there, there

186
00:10:08,000 --> 00:10:10,560
Speaker 1: might not be anything that really comes of it at all.

187
00:10:10,880 --> 00:10:13,000
Speaker 1: And the fact of the matter is that these restricted

188
00:10:13,000 --> 00:10:15,760
Speaker 1: reports are painted as a kind of reform for these women,

189
00:10:15,800 --> 00:10:18,840
Speaker 1: that they're better than the old way of openly reporting

190
00:10:18,840 --> 00:10:22,000
Speaker 1: to your superior that you've been raped or assaulted, because

191
00:10:22,040 --> 00:10:26,000
Speaker 1: that opened up women to even more harassment by fellow soldiers.

192
00:10:26,040 --> 00:10:27,800
Speaker 1: You know, you don't want to be a snitch in

193
00:10:27,840 --> 00:10:30,600
Speaker 1: the military, and so doing it in an open way

194
00:10:31,600 --> 00:10:34,280
Speaker 1: was very dangerous, and women didn't want to open themselves

195
00:10:34,320 --> 00:10:35,840
Speaker 1: up to it. They wanted to be, you know, these

196
00:10:35,840 --> 00:10:38,920
Speaker 1: tough soldiers respected for who they were. So they think

197
00:10:38,960 --> 00:10:41,839
Speaker 1: this restricted reform is, you know, a step forward. But

198
00:10:41,880 --> 00:10:43,880
Speaker 1: the fact of the matter is is they can't move

199
00:10:43,920 --> 00:10:47,439
Speaker 1: forward with any charges until the women you know, essentially

200
00:10:48,120 --> 00:10:50,840
Speaker 1: make it unrestricted and reveal who they are, who it was,

201
00:10:51,040 --> 00:10:53,680
Speaker 1: when it happened, etcetera. So I don't know if these

202
00:10:53,720 --> 00:10:55,920
Speaker 1: reforms will do anything in the long run, but I

203
00:10:55,920 --> 00:10:58,760
Speaker 1: guess it's good now that people are aware of the problem. Yeah.

204
00:10:58,800 --> 00:11:01,040
Speaker 1: And and on top of that, the pentagone, according to

205
00:11:01,040 --> 00:11:05,480
Speaker 1: this CBS news story, the Pentagon has said that up

206
00:11:05,520 --> 00:11:08,440
Speaker 1: to eight percent of sexual assaults that happen aren't being

207
00:11:08,679 --> 00:11:10,839
Speaker 1: reported at all. So I mean, at least there is

208
00:11:10,880 --> 00:11:14,280
Speaker 1: some openness about the situation and people know what's going on,

209
00:11:14,320 --> 00:11:18,560
Speaker 1: so maybe UM we'll see, you know, improvements with that,

210
00:11:18,840 --> 00:11:21,319
Speaker 1: but at the same time, it is still a huge problem,

211
00:11:21,440 --> 00:11:25,600
Speaker 1: especially in these intense combat zones. UM and and that

212
00:11:25,720 --> 00:11:28,320
Speaker 1: comes to brings us around to this issue of what

213
00:11:28,440 --> 00:11:31,800
Speaker 1: happens when these women are coming home the uh the

214
00:11:31,920 --> 00:11:36,480
Speaker 1: issue of post traumatic stress disorder among specifically among male soldiers,

215
00:11:36,760 --> 00:11:39,200
Speaker 1: has been a big news story in the past year

216
00:11:39,280 --> 00:11:43,120
Speaker 1: or so of UM high rates of suicide and violence

217
00:11:43,160 --> 00:11:46,679
Speaker 1: among soldiers who have come home from more and UH,

218
00:11:46,720 --> 00:11:49,240
Speaker 1: So the question is, if all these sexual assaults are happening,

219
00:11:49,440 --> 00:11:52,200
Speaker 1: how is that affecting in combination with combat, how is

220
00:11:52,200 --> 00:11:56,120
Speaker 1: that affecting women's soldiers who are coming home Because uh

221
00:11:56,200 --> 00:11:59,600
Speaker 1: there was a blog post that I read from the

222
00:12:00,040 --> 00:12:02,760
Speaker 1: Defense Centers of Excellence, which is part of the Department

223
00:12:03,080 --> 00:12:08,240
Speaker 1: of Defense UM, talking about psychological health for military women,

224
00:12:08,600 --> 00:12:10,960
Speaker 1: and it mentioned that UM a comparison of male and

225
00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:14,600
Speaker 1: female veterans from Vietnam and Gulf Wars suggests that men

226
00:12:15,160 --> 00:12:19,000
Speaker 1: are three times more likely to be given a PTSD diagnosis.

227
00:12:19,400 --> 00:12:21,200
Speaker 1: And unfortunately, this seems to be sort of a biproduct

228
00:12:21,200 --> 00:12:23,360
Speaker 1: of women having to be so tough to even make

229
00:12:23,400 --> 00:12:26,480
Speaker 1: it onto these you know, quote unquote frontlines in the

230
00:12:26,520 --> 00:12:28,640
Speaker 1: first place. You know, if you have to display this

231
00:12:28,679 --> 00:12:31,880
Speaker 1: emotional toughness, then when you come home and have these symptoms,

232
00:12:31,960 --> 00:12:34,800
Speaker 1: then the mental health experts still not really seeing women

233
00:12:34,800 --> 00:12:37,280
Speaker 1: as part of you know, this fighting military force. Just

234
00:12:37,320 --> 00:12:40,760
Speaker 1: give them a diagnosis of depression anxiety and they may

235
00:12:40,800 --> 00:12:43,360
Speaker 1: not be getting the care they need for the PTSD, which,

236
00:12:43,400 --> 00:12:46,959
Speaker 1: you know, vicious circle might in fact be fueled by

237
00:12:46,559 --> 00:12:49,719
Speaker 1: a possible sexual assault, right and uh, and that's one

238
00:12:49,720 --> 00:12:52,160
Speaker 1: of the things that this um, this post from the

239
00:12:52,200 --> 00:12:55,640
Speaker 1: Defense Centers of Excellence points out, is this cultural expectation

240
00:12:56,240 --> 00:12:58,920
Speaker 1: of you know, women really having to uphold the idea

241
00:12:58,960 --> 00:13:02,640
Speaker 1: of being a true soldier, you know, which is usually

242
00:13:02,960 --> 00:13:07,120
Speaker 1: you know, very tough, masculinized idea that we have of

243
00:13:07,120 --> 00:13:09,679
Speaker 1: of someone in the military. Yeah, so it is a

244
00:13:09,760 --> 00:13:11,679
Speaker 1: vicious circle right now. It's a good news bad news

245
00:13:11,720 --> 00:13:14,720
Speaker 1: situation where we do have some awesome women out there

246
00:13:15,240 --> 00:13:18,360
Speaker 1: kicking butt, taking names, and proving they can find on

247
00:13:18,400 --> 00:13:20,120
Speaker 1: the front line. At the same time, they still do

248
00:13:20,280 --> 00:13:23,280
Speaker 1: face um an uphill battle. They're they're working hard to

249
00:13:23,360 --> 00:13:27,320
Speaker 1: make equality happen. Yeah, absolutely, So a big shout to

250
00:13:27,320 --> 00:13:30,520
Speaker 1: all our troops male and female. Yeah, definitely. And if

251
00:13:30,559 --> 00:13:34,160
Speaker 1: you have any military experience or you know someone in

252
00:13:34,200 --> 00:13:38,160
Speaker 1: the military and would like to share any stories about

253
00:13:38,200 --> 00:13:41,480
Speaker 1: that with with me and Molly Uh, please feel free

254
00:13:41,520 --> 00:13:44,679
Speaker 1: to email us at mom stuff at how stuff works

255
00:13:44,679 --> 00:13:47,319
Speaker 1: dot com. And as always, if you want to check

256
00:13:47,360 --> 00:13:49,400
Speaker 1: out what Molly and I are doing during the week,

257
00:13:49,960 --> 00:13:52,520
Speaker 1: you can head over to our blog. It's called how

258
00:13:52,679 --> 00:13:57,280
Speaker 1: to stuff and you can also read more info about um,

259
00:13:57,320 --> 00:14:01,240
Speaker 1: the military, and the wars going on right now, all

260
00:14:01,280 --> 00:14:04,960
Speaker 1: of this and much much more at how stuff works

261
00:14:05,240 --> 00:14:11,400
Speaker 1: dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics,

262
00:14:11,640 --> 00:14:15,200
Speaker 1: is it how stuff works dot com. Want more how

263
00:14:15,280 --> 00:14:17,960
Speaker 1: stuff works, check out our blogs on the how stuff

264
00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:24,680
Speaker 1: works dot com home page. Brought to you by the

265
00:14:24,680 --> 00:14:28,040
Speaker 1: reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you