Women are the fastest-growing segment of the veteran population. So why do so many of us still feel like we don’t exist?

I’ve shared pieces of my story here before. the journals, the Army, the hinted long road to healing. But today I want to zoom out, because my story isn’t unique. Not even close. There are hundreds of thousands of women who wore the uniform, who carried things home from their service that no one prepared them for, and who are still fighting battles that most people never see.

This post is for them. And for anyone who loves one of them.

Let’s talk about what’s really happening with female veteran mental health, the numbers, the barriers, and the deeply broken system that too often fails the women who served.

• The Numbers Are Staggering — And Still Under-Reported

Women veterans are the fastest-growing group in the veteran community, yet the research, the resources, and the cultural conversation have been slow, dangerously slow I might add, to catch up.

Here’s what we know:

Female veterans are more than twice as likely to experience PTSD compared to their male counterparts. Let that sink in. Not slightly more likely. Twice as likely. And yet the image most people picture when they think “veteran with PTSD” is still almost always male.

VA data from fiscal year 2024 shows that 24% of female VA users were diagnosed with PTSD, compared to 14% of male VA users. That gap is not a coincidence. It points to something specific. something that too many women in the military have experienced firsthand but rarely feel safe enough to name out loud.

• Military Sexual Trauma: The Wound Inside the Wound

Military Sexual Trauma, known as MST in short, is the VA’s term for any sexual assault or repeated, threatening sexual harassment that occurs during military service. And the statistics around it are nothing short of devastating.

About 1 in 3 women veterans report experiencing MST when screened by their VA provider, compared to 1 in 50 male veterans. One in three.

And that number only reflects women who accessed VA care and were screened. The true figure is almost certainly higher, because not every survivor seeks VA services, and not every survivor is ready to say the words out loud to a provider they’ve just met.

Female veterans who experienced MST are nine times more likely to develop PTSD compared to those who did not. Nine times. It is not an exaggeration to say that MST is one of the most significant drivers of mental health crises in the female veteran community.

The damage doesn’t stop at PTSD. MST survivors face dramatically elevated risks of depression, anxiety disorders, and substance use disorders. Research shows that 75% of MST survivors report experiencing suicidal thoughts after the trauma, and the suicide risk is 127% higher for women who have experienced MST compared to those who have not.

And here is what makes it even more devastating: many of these women reported their assault. Many of them went through the proper channels. Many of them trusted the system that was supposed to protect them and were let down by it anyway. Survivors frequently describe a sense of institutional betrayal, feeling failed by the very system that was supposed to protect them. That betrayal compounds the original trauma in ways that are incredibly difficult to untangle, and incredibly difficult to heal from alone.

PTSD Looks Different in Women — And That Gets Missed

Here’s something the mental health system has been slow to reckon with: PTSD doesn’t always present the same way in women as it does in men.

Combat-related trauma, you know the explosions, firefights, or direct enemy contact, has historically been the lens through which PTSD was understood, diagnosed, and treated. That framework was built almost entirely around men’s experiences. It has never fully accounted for the reality that sexual trauma and harassment can be equally and more often than not, sometimes more traumatizing than combat exposure.

Sexual trauma is linked to PTSD symptoms at rates equal to or higher than those seen after combat exposure, yet for years, the diagnostic and treatment models didn’t reflect this. Women presenting with PTSD from MST were often misdiagnosed, under-diagnosed, or simply not believed.

Research shows that on average only 41% of women veterans who received any psychotherapy made it to 8 sessions {that’s less than half}. The drop-off isn’t random. It reflects a system that wasn’t designed with women in mind, in spaces that don’t always feel safe, with providers who don’t always understand the full picture.

• The Invisible Veteran

There is another battle that female veterans fight every single day, one that has nothing to do with trauma and everything to do with identity.

We are invisible. Despite active-duty roles for women seeing a 12% increase and selected reserves a 15% increase from 2000 to 2019, nearly 91% of women veteran’s report feeling invisible.

Ninety-one percent. The very word “veteran” calls to mind the image of a man for most people — especially when talking about a combat veteran. Women veterans often find themselves in a no-man’s land: too military for civilian spaces, not always fully welcomed in veteran spaces, and constantly having to prove what they’ve earned.

Women veterans may be questioned about their eligibility for everything from VA health care to reserved parking spaces. Many describe being asked, “Oh, did your husband serve?” when they show their military ID. Many stop mentioning their service altogether — not because they’re ashamed of it, but because the exhaustion of constantly educating people outweighs the reward of being seen.

Women veterans consistently describe feeling invisible and unrecognized as service members or veterans. This is a pattern that has changed little across generations. The younger women coming out of service now are facing the same walls that women faced decades ago. That is not progress. That is failure.

This invisibility has real, measurable consequences. When women don’t feel seen in veteran spaces, they disengage from them, which means they miss out on resources, community, and support that could be life-saving. The suicide rate for female veterans is 250% higher than that of the civilian female population. These numbers do not exist in a vacuum. They are, in part, the cost of invisibility.

• Why Writing  and Talking  Matters

I didn’t start writing The Ice Queen Ascension as an act of activism. I started it as an act of survival. But the more I share this journey, the more I hear from women who recognize something in Violet’s story, a woman who was betrayed by people who should have protected her, who was left to rebuild herself from ruins, who refused to stay invisible.

That is not a coincidence. I’m not a mental health professional. I’m a writer and a veteran who found her way through journaling, through therapy, through the painstaking and nonlinear process of healing. What I know is that stories matter. Visibility matters. Being told your experience is real, you are not alone, and you deserve support that matters more than most people realize.

• If You’re a Female Veteran Who Needs Support

You served. You are a veteran. Full stop. And you deserve care that understands your experience.

Here are some resources specifically for women veterans:

• Veterans Crisis Line: Call or text 988, then press 1. Available 24/7, confidential.
• VA MST Support: Every VA medical center has an MST coordinator. You can ask for one directly. Visit mentalhealth.va.gov/mst for more information.
• DAV (Disabled American Veterans): Offers benefits assistance and advocacy specifically for women veterans. Visit dav.org.
• Service Women’s Action Network: The only national advocacy organization dedicated to women who serve and have served. Visit servicewomen.org.

You don’t have to have it all figured out to reach out. You just need to take that very first step.

• To Everyone Else Reading This

See us. Hire us. Include us in the conversation.

When a woman tells you she’s a veteran, believe her. When a female veteran in your life seems like she’s struggling, check in. When veteran organizations, mental health initiatives, and policy decisions are being made, ask who’s at the table, and whether women’s experiences are being accounted for.

The women who served this country deserve more than statistics in a report that no one reads. They deserve to be seen, heard, and supported with the same urgency as any other veteran.

It starts with the conversation. So let’s keep having it.

Leigh Nightshade

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