As the highest-ranking woman in the history of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), VA Deputy Secretary Tanya Bradsher said this Veterans Day she wants to empower more women vets to sign up for their rightfully earned VA benefits.
During a Nov. 5 conversation with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Bradsher explained that reaching out to women veterans is a priority of hers, noting that many minimize their service contributions.
President Biden signed the PACT Act into law in 2022, which is helping the VA deliver care and benefits to millions of veterans and their survivors exposed to toxins. In conducting outreach to make veterans aware of the expanded benefits, Bradsher said that she found women veterans were hesitant to sign up.
“What I found was, for women veterans, they would come up to me and ask about their spouse,” Bradsher said. “So, as we’re talking, I would ask, ‘How’d you guys meet?’ ‘Oh, we were stationed together.’ ‘Oh, so you served. Why aren’t you also applying?’ And it was, ‘I only did four years, I got out when I was pregnant,’ and there was this compartmentalizing and minimizing of their service because they didn’t serve as long or they didn’t do as many tours.”
Another example Bradsher shared was at Target on Veterans Day, when a cashier decided to open her line up to veterans. Bradsher said she thanked the woman, who replied, “I used to be a veteran.”
Confused, as “it’s not a club you leave,” Bradsher asked the woman what she meant, only to hear her say, “Well, I only did one deployment, and I only served four years. I used to be a veteran.”
“I said, ‘No, you’re always a veteran. Have you signed up for your benefits?’ And she said, ‘No, no, I only did one tour.’ I was like, ‘Absolutely, you deserve your benefits, so you need to sign up,’” Bradsher recalled.
“So, what I hope being the first woman to be confirmed to serve – we’ve had a couple of acting females, but never one confirmed – [is] that other women veterans see me and see that the VA is for them,” Bradsher said.
According to the VA, only 44 percent of women veterans are enrolled in VA health care. Bradsher said she hopes more women veterans take the opportunity to learn about the services that the VA has for them, including reproductive care, women’s health clinics, and treatment for menopause symptoms.
“We have really done so much to be able to reach out to our women veterans,” Bradsher said. “Maybe by seeing me and hearing from me that’ll encourage them or encourage our male veterans to reach out to their battle buddies who are women, to say, ‘Hey, are you getting your VA care?’ Because veterans listen to other veterans.”
“I just think we really need to get America used to having women veterans,” she concluded. “The bottom line is, the veteran population represents all of the United States. We are incredibly diverse. We’ve all served, and I just think if our women veterans really just take a minute to acknowledge their service a little bit more, it would be lovely.”
This Veterans Day, women veterans who are looking to learn more about the available health services and resources they have earned can visit WomensHealth.VA.gov.
