USA – Female Soliders in War as Resilient as Men – Study
Author: Womens UN Report Network
Date: July 22, 2005
WUNRN
USA – FEMALE SOLIDERS IN WAR AS
RESILIENT AS MEN – STUDY
Source: Reuters //
Bernd Debusmann Jr. – 08 June, 2011
U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates (R) shakes hands with a
female soldier during his visit to Forward Operating Base (FOB) Walton near
By Bernd Debusmann Jr.
June 8 (Reuters Life!) – Women soldiers are as resilient in handling combat
stress as the men they serve with, according to a new study of
veterans of the wars in
They suffered from comparable
levels of combat-stress and post-deployment mental health problems as their
male counterparts.
“Contrary to popular
belief women who go to war respond to combat trauma much like their male
counterparts,” said Dawne Vogt, of the
of the study.
“And with the
unpredictable guerilla tactics of modern warfare, barring women from ground
combat is less meaningful.”
She added that the findings,
published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, ran contrary to popular belief
and previous research. They are also important following calls for the
serving in combat units.
Women have served in the
military in combat support roles such as medics. Last year there were just over
200,000 women soldiers out of a total active duty force of 1.4 million
soldiers.
Vogt and her team studied
Department of Defense survey data from 595 service members, including 340
women, who were on average about three years younger than the men and more
likely to belong to a racial or ethnic minority.
Stress measures included
receiving hostile fire, firing a weapon, witnessing combat casualties, fearing
for personal safety and day-to-day living in austere conditions.
Vogt said that one possible
explanation for the surprise findings was that “women are getting training
that’s comparable to men.”
Another was that combat was the
“great equalizer” of risk.
“Combat might overwhelm
any difference we might see,” she said.
As expected, the study showed
that men reported more exposure to combat and difficult living situations, but
that the difference was minor.
Men and women experienced very
similar post-deployment levels of depression and mental health issues, but men
were found to abuse substances slightly more.
As of 2009, when all the survey
participants had returned from deployment, over 750 women had been killed or
wounded in
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