 Good afternoon. I would like to welcome you to DAV's women veterans seminar I'm super excited to stand here to be up here before you today to discuss a topic that is near and dear to my heart and To be a part of DA's legacy of ensuring women veterans receive high quality gender-specific care and quality care that they deserve To be a part of changing the culture for women not only in the VA, but across the federal landscape and within our communities As with many other things change often occurs from within With that said women veteran have to be made to feel comfortable in asking for the care that they need and Getting the recognition and having the resources that they have earned and that they deserve Gone are the days where you're told to suck it up and drive on Women veterans do not have to ignore being have to ignore being overlooked as the patient when they walk into the VA facilities Nor should it be assumed when you walk into the regional office that you are there to be assistance to your husband or On Veterans Day standing in the company of men feeling visible while men are being thanked for their service This change occurs on all fronts women demanding recognition for the service federal agencies acknowledging women's specific needs and the community embracing women and Their accomplishments Since I've been a part of the legislative staff for a little more than a year now many do not know who I am So I have to begin there and tell you a little bit about my story. I'm a I'm a simple little girl I'm a native of Dallas, Texas. I joined the army. Oh It's Dallas in the house Texas in the house It's the army in the house right All of the all branches give them give everyone a hurrah though But I started as as in the National Guard and after five years I decided I wanted more of it So I liked it. I loved it. I want more of it So I decided to go into regular army and after 12 years of service I was medically retired Being medically retired is kind of what brought me here today It is part of my story and part of many stories that you may share Because when you're medically retired, you're cut short. You didn't make that choice that choice was made for you So many are in search of their next mission and I fell into that group So DAV was my new mission and because of you and because of what we do and because of our service Is why I'm here today to speak before you I speak from my heart. I speak United with the staff at the headquarters both headquarters and United with the National Service Officers that work with you each and every day the transitional service officers the chapter service officers All of us are united together today for one cause and that is bringing making better lives for veterans So with that said I have skipped several slides and my presentation. I Want to first start with acknowledgments. I want to give acknowledgement to our first junior vice National junior vice miss deck miss delphine make Cal foster and also I want to recognize the DAV 2015 2016 DAV interim women veterans committee if you will please stand miss Adalis Marquez Joanne Martinez She's working back there Mr. Greg Remus and miss Evangeline Schultz over there on the side Many of you may not know about the interim women veterans committee But these women and men are put together to be of advisement to the adjutant and to the commander We want to hear from you. You now have women veterans chairs in your departments If you are one of those ladies, I will be reaching out to you and so will the interim women's veteran committee We will be reaching out to you to get you information the information that you need to get in contact with the resources and the Networks that you need out in your communities. Oh, you have some handouts that are on the chairs with you How many of you knew that the VA had apps? There's an app store for the VA So I only see maybe five or six hands So that means that this is a good resource for you the VA has apps They have an app store just like you have on your smartphone on those apps There's an app for mental health and there are also women veteran specific apps in your chairs You have some of the handouts for them if you don't you can fit if you look on the back of one of them There's a website that you can go to to to download those apps And if you don't have that information, I will give it to you after the presentation Actually, I have it here Also, I want to make you aware of the MVP Booth that is downstairs the million veteran program boot. It's essential that women Be part of this movement If we don't participate then they're not going to have the information that they need to do research as specific to women So please stop by the booth and contribute For all of us. All right, what you've been waiting for Your speakers or today to my right. We have dr. Nancy Glow walkie Serves as the women veterans program manager with the US Department of Labor and Veterans Employment and Training Services in this role She's responsible for continuously monitoring and overlapping Considerations of working veterans and working women to ensure that dol's Department of Labor's employment services are meeting the needs of women Veterans prior to coming to vets. She served as a subject matter expert in veterans transition issues for the military The Department of Veterans Affairs and as an independent consultant. She is a veteran of the US Army Having served among both enlisted and officer ranks her education includes a doctorative management and organizational leadership a master's of business and administration in human resources management and a bachelor of science Without further ado, please give a warm welcome for miss Nancy Glow walkie Good afternoon everybody. I am just in awe of the turnout. In fact, you might have seen me taking pictures of you I've never seen I've never been able to speak at an event that was all seats filled And even people standing in the back. And so I'm just so humbled and so so thankful to you all for being here I am an army veteran and I actually got out of the service in 2005 due to serious injuries so the first thing I did was joined DAV I am a lifetime member and I Really am personally thankful to the work that you all do particularly with helping some of us that go through that really rough time Particularly of getting out of service with with newly acquired injuries and not really knowing what to do and or what we're eligible for So thank you. I'm also just thrilled professionally based on my current role of The way that DAV and Department of Labor now work together Not only am I here for this panel, but I was here for the the the last workshop the employment workshop And I was so thrilled to hear what they're doing in terms of employment Both that they're working directly with our DevOps and leavers Which you will hear me talk a little bit more about later and also when the employment committee was referenced I looked over to where they were pointing and saw one of our very own Vets employees John Donovan who is an assistant director and investigator for the Arkansas DOL vets. Is he still here? John, I know you're out there somewhere. So I'm just really really thrilled to be here In my current role, I spend a lot of time doing analysis and a lot of time doing engagement And so my purpose is to make sure that our services of Department of Labor are meeting the needs of women veterans So today I'd like to kind of give you an overview of why we even have a women veteran program because I do sometimes get that question Why do you have a women veteran program? Why do you even use the term women veteran? So I'd like to talk a little bit about that Tell you a little bit about what we do with our women veteran program And then I'd like to go over some statistics and some trends And and I'm really happy to be able to be here and do all that with you today So if we could go on to the next slide, please one of the things that I wanted to throw out there upfront is the concept of self-identification Versus being identified Most of us have probably heard somebody it might have even been myself in the past say that women veterans are less likely than male veterans to identify as a veteran and in some ways that is true if you think about women who served in World War two before they were Legally recognized as veterans But what we see among women of working age and what we are hearing more and more from them is hey I do self-identify as a veteran But I'm being overlooked and I'm not being identified as a veteran and so that's there's really a difference there And I get asked a lot by employers. Well, why don't they just tell people they're veterans? Well, when's the last time you just walked up to an employer and told them about a profession you held ten years ago I mean is it relevant to the conversation and oh by the way, are you sure they didn't were you really listening? So, you know, I wanted to to throw that out there and I've spent a lot of time asking myself How can this still be happening? I'm sure most of us in this room. I see a lot of women veterans out here. I'm so excited about that I'm sure most of us have been in that position where we've been asked if we're the spouse of a veteran or the sister of a veteran Yes No, I'm here for my medical appointment. I am the veteran and so one day I actually came from my own medical appointment and I do get my health care at the VA and I went from my medical appointment To my office and I was just racking my brain thing and how could this have just happened in it was then 2015 But it was thankfully it was not a it was not a staff member. It was a veteran a young veteran younger than me That walked up. He was talking to the gentleman sitting next to me and then he finally looked over at me said well What about you ma'am? Are you his spouse or his sister? I said, I've never met this man before in my life. I'm the veteran. I'm here for my medical appointment So while I was asking myself, how can this still be happening? I went back to my office and and what I was working on that day was data And I spend a lot of time with data particularly in January when we get the annual unemployment statistics from the Bureau of Labor statistics and if we go on to the next slide, please and When I started looking at the basic demographics I thought, you know, well, maybe this kind of makes sense that we're still being overlooked Maybe it just goes back to natural human assumptions Because natural human assumptions are really based off our own personal experiences and exposure So how many Americans have really been exposed to a woman veteran? Here on this slide you can see that one in eleven veterans today veterans of all ages is in fact a woman But if we look at how many women are veterans, it's actually one in 63 in this country right now So that means that in order to meet a woman veteran a person will have met Approximately 62 women who are not veterans and while I don't have the stats here for you today I can tell you that a woman is more likely to be married to a veteran than she is to be a veteran herself So I really think that most of the time they mean us no harm. It's these natural Assumptions which means that we have to work even harder to change those assumptions and and trust me There are days too where I just want to get my health care and go home or wherever I may be that day And I don't really want to talk about it either And perhaps because of my current profession I forced myself to speak up more and more and say no I am a veteran Because even if I don't feel like doing it that day I have to do it for the woman that comes behind me because every person that now has been exposed to a woman veteran is One person who's a little bit less likely to assume that we're all men Now if we look at women under 35 years old and if you could go on to the next slide, please Oh, and by the way something that I forgot to mention on this slide by comparison It's one in six men in this country one in six men is a veteran and yes That includes the older veterans so that will change as they age out But most Americans have been exposed to a male veteran if we could go on to the next slide, please Oh, I'm sorry. You already did if we look at women under 35 years old Here we see the As far as a minority of the veteran population. It's really getting small. It's one in five Veterans under 35 years old that is a women. So when I say a smaller minority that that may not make a lot of sense I mean, we're less of a minority than we used to be as we get the younger women coming out But if we look at women under 35 years old It's then one in 96 that that is a veteran and of course This is the age group under 35 years old where we have higher unemployment rates We always have higher unemployment rates under 35 years old and those are of course ages To where they're more likely to be getting out of the service more likely to be looking for employment So that's very important to us if we could go ahead and go on to the next slide, so What do these societal impacts? What impact does this have really on her transition other than it's annoying and Often offensive. How does it really impact her transition? Is it really that big of a deal? I would say that it is In fact, I have talked to a lot of women and I've frankly been through this myself where they feel quite isolated I've talked to women who get out of the service and They no longer have that That tight camaraderie with their male peers that they might have had during a deployment or or another Situation because it may need maybe isn't appropriate now in a civilian workplace. It's a very different culture and yet I've been working with men all these years. I don't necessarily know how to work with women Right and I'm speaking personally. I'm not saying that's for all of us But I had a hard it took me years to adapt to that and so it can be quite isolating Now if we add on to that again some of the things that people say to us I think the the woman and this is stock photography So she's not the actual woman who said this but one woman put it this way and this is a direct quote My male peers came home from our deployment to be recognized as heroes I spent a year in combat to come home to a nation debating whether or not women should be in combat And so where does that leave her when she's already feeling isolated and then she's got people saying well Why don't you just tell people you're a veteran? Well? Why would I at this point, right? so it really is important and Again, I'm just so grateful to all efforts to help women veterans and to change these stereotypes and and these myths If we could go on to the next slide, please I'd like to show you what these statistics look like in the workplace Because my focus is again employment So here this was my attempt at creating a hundred cubicles. So sorry. I'm not an artist if you had a Employer with 100 employees and they were all sitting in these cubicles on average in a typical workplace 47 of them would be women 53 would be men of All of those seven would be veterans only one would be a woman veteran And here's why this is important I often get calls from employers who and remember if they're calling me They're the good ones that they want to hire women veterans And I'll often get calls from employers that they want to create separate programs for women veterans And that's a great idea in theory and I applaud the intent But I have to stop and ask them well, you know You might want to first find out how many women veterans you actually have working for you Because if it were this particular employer, what did you do? You just isolated her off by herself So first find out how many women veterans you have and then decide whether or not that's realistic But what else could you do? You could see if you have any women's groups and and and ask them if they are Being inclusive of somebody who served in the military and and maybe just got out of service and doesn't feel like she fits in right away You could ask your veterans affinity groups if they are being inclusive of women in their words in their pictures And again something that I was so appreciative of in the last workshop was when I looked up at the first slide and you see a woman Representing the employment program We need more and more of that happening because that that one woman veteran up there can can be pretty lonely Next slide, please overall women veterans are actually doing very well in terms of employment and Here I'd like to you know just show you a little bit of How women veterans are actually more likely to be college graduates and that's among all types of degrees and They're also more likely to be in the civilian labor force now a couple of caveats with that If they are more likely to be college graduates, they are also more likely to be enrolled in school and We do see the highest unemployment rates among people who are currently enrolled in school and seeking full-time employment And that would be among veterans non-veterans women men It's just typical so with women being more likely to be enrolled in school I would expect more to be reaching out to us for assistance to be reaching out for the DAV employment program for assistance You know for that and some other reasons as well another thing with the college graduates that I Just like to point out because I think it's something we often don't realize There's a very real wage gap in this country and so a person may be very well employed and still struggling and I've sometimes been asked well if they're if they're more likely to be college graduates then you know What's what's the problem? Well when it comes to wage gap there the wage gap gets bigger with every level of education So that's something to remember and that may be because the more educated you are the more likely you are to negotiate I mean, we don't know the exact details around wage gap There's a lot of people smarter than me trying to trying to wrap their heads around it But I just say all that to say this even though you know, I want you to know women veterans are doing well We're not horribly concerned right now That does not mean it doesn't deserve all hands-on-deck effort to make sure that they continue to do well And that those who are not are getting the help that that that we have for them and that they need Now in the civilian labor force something interesting here. It's interesting to me, but I'm kind of a nerd The way that I first stumbled upon this it was very early in our women veteran program and we'll hit We'll hit three years in another month and So very early on I was kind of racking my brain trying to figure things out because the 2012 Unemployment statistics were pretty bad for women veterans and our program started in 2013 so I started by looking at At that time it was 17 years now. It's been 20 years of unemployment statistics and I was expecting to find trends that were very clear to be veteran trends or gender trends And I didn't what I found was that without exception and this is still true now for 20 years The highest unemployment rates going by annual averages among women veterans women non veterans male veterans and male non veterans was either women veterans or male non veterans and So what do those two have in common? They're the most likely to be in the labor force and so, you know Sometimes we hear these unemployment statistics, but we don't really know What's behind them and every now and then when I see a Smaller subgroup of veterans that has the higher unemployment rates. I'll dig a little deeper and I'll say yep They're also more likely to be in the Employment in the civilian workforce at all Okay, if we could go on to the next slide, please So what about the unemployment rates? I'm really happy to say that for the past three years now the unemployment rates of women veterans and women non veterans has not been statistically different and When I say statistically different there's a margin of error that People smarter than me at the Bureau of Labor statistics figure out each year and this particular year In January this past January. I actually was calling them daily saying what's the margin of error? Do you have it yet? What's the margin of error? And when they finally called me they said, okay, we've confirmed it's one full point again So that that tells me that they would have to be one full percentage point different for us to know that It's not just a statistical anomaly So these are not statistically different and that's very good news for women veterans that we are on par with women non veterans Now of women of color specifically African-American women We actually see that veterans do better than non veterans. In fact in 2015 you can see it's it's a full two percentage Points difference in the unemployment rates Which I think really says something about women who've served in the military now I would like to explain why I use annual averages here because you may often get Here something quoted with monthly statistics. In fact, even the agency that I worked for They if you're on our newsletter, you may be getting a monthly newsletter from us that has monthly data And that's important data because that's how Bureau of Labor statistics keeps up with what's currently happening in the workplace And it is very important When we look at women veterans, we really have to look at annual averages because of the sample size The sample size is sometimes ridiculous. In fact, there was I remember one particular month I was told I could go home because you know hardly anybody was unemployed in the women veteran community And then the next month the sky was falling. It's you know, it's it's really it's up and down So we have to look at those annual averages. I once had a student call me I often get calls from people working on a dissertation and I'm thrilled that they want to you know Do something to help women veterans with that and I once had it broke my heart I once had a young guy call me and he was creating his dissertation based off of Women veterans between the ages of 20 and 24 who were unemployed and in a vocational rehabilitation program And I said wow, where are you gonna find all four of them? I mean and obviously it's not literally four But that's wow, that's little and When when I asked him how he came across that he started quoting somebody and I remember I did it when I was in school too Well, so and so said this so he started doing that and What he was quoting was another person quoting Bureau of Labor Statistics data and I said, okay Let's go back to the Bureau of Labor Statistics data. What have you got there? And he said well, there were four thousand women veterans in the study and I said you do realize that 4000 on paper means two people Right and so when he called me up saying half of women veterans between 20 and 24 years old are unemployed I do believe that if you pick two people one of them might be unemployed. I Cannot deny that So, you know, I just think we need to be very careful and we do continue to monitor We're not saying turn a blind eye, but you know annual averages are the most reliable So if we can go on to the next slide, please You may notice that I did not compare women veterans to male veterans in terms of Unemployment rates and there are reasons for that the two populations Looking at the the whole populations. They're really not comparable for employment terms for several reasons The first being the simple demographics here You can see on on this slide basic age 44 I'm sorry 48.5 percent of male veterans are over the age of 65 So that's really not comparable with women veterans who most of whom are younger and of working age If you will look at one of your handouts here It looks like this it says women veterans equally valued equally qualified equally served And please just read through this on your own later. This is something that I put together about a year Maybe a year and a half ago To kind of explain the the difference is why we don't compare the two and that women veterans are doing equally well as women non-veterans and In January of this year I was anxiously awaiting the data drop to see if this would be confirmed for another year or if it would be Contradicted and it was in fact confirmed. So the data the I did not update the data But the content is still accurate and you're welcome to call me and I'll give you the new stats if you want them Some other things comparing women to men Women are more likely to be of minority status than male veterans. They're more likely to be younger They're more likely to be enrolled in school. Like I already said if we could go on to the next slide, please They're also more likely to have served in recent eras Obviously if they're if they're younger and so they're more likely to be getting out and seeking employment Now going on to the next slide. I wanted to share with you some occupational trends Just just a couple here that I thought were were very interesting looking at management occupations Veterans of both genders are more likely than non-veterans of both genders to work in management Men regardless of veteran status are more likely than women regardless of veteran status to work in management So here we see where you know that we've got a clear gender trend and we've got a clear veteran trend there What I thought was particularly Interesting, I actually got pretty excited when I when I saw these next to that you see on here So you may hear us talk a lot about women in non-traditional occupations and by we I don't even mean the veteran community I mean people speaking out for women where there's a national push to encourage women to go into non-traditional occupations a Non-traditional occupation means an occupation where 75% or more of the workforce is the opposite gender So a non-traditional occupation for me would be 75% or greater male And we find that these non-traditional occupations typically pay more have more long-term opportunities You know, so we're really trying to get women to not necessarily push them into those either But to to think outside of the box to think outside of what she may have been told she should do You know and really what do you want to do? you know don't exclude that because it's a male population you already proved yourself in a male population and Although looking at the bigger picture It looks like women veterans are going into the same occupations for the most part as women non-veterans And I was asking myself why why why they've already proven themselves And when I found these smaller slices of data I found this very hopeful for a computer and mathematical occupations Women veterans are twice as likely as women non-veterans to go into these fields And these would be considered STEM which there's even a push to encourage young girls to go into STEM these days The next one just really really made me proud of of of my sisters-in-service Protective service occupations which includes policemen firemen Detectives the supervisors and managers of all those positions Not only are women veterans four times as likely as women non-veterans But they're actually more likely than male non-veterans to go into these occupations And so I really thought that was very cool So we can go on to the next slide, please So even though I believe women veterans overall are currently doing very well We do need everybody's help in in helping all women veterans because there's still some that are falling in between the cracks And here I think we really need to look at the overlap of challenges that we see in the veteran community And in the women community. So here you can see in red I have just a couple examples of challenges that Veterans have when they transition from the military to the civilian workforce Culture shock difficulty translating their military skills into something a civilian will understand Unfamiliarity with the job civilian job search process It's cetera. Etc. And then if we add to that the issues that working women in this country face Low-wage occupations women in this country are are more concentrated in low-wage occupations than men They're more likely to experience poverty than men. They're more likely to be stuck in the minimum wage than men so if we are to Change those unemployment statistics to the point where instead of me telling you why we can't compare men and women for unemployment I'm bragging to you about how look they're now equally even though statistics say they shouldn't be if we want to get There what we need to do in the veteran community is start looking at women's issues And I don't really like the term women's issues, but you know concerns that are just Disproportionate to women and we've got to really attack that in the veterans community so what is sometimes disturbing to me is that in at least one case public policy for veterans is overlooking Issues that are disproportionate to women and if we could go on to the next slide, please So in this particular example, and first let me tell you how I came across this particular example I was working on a webinar to put up on our website and it was simple webinar to explain the employment services that are available and I wanted to have in there the lecture of you know every detail on who qualifies for what and make sure it was No room for error or misinterpretation And so as I was looking into the laws that allow us to to do what we do at do all that I came across something that I just couldn't wrap my head around and that was in the definition of homelessness there's a difference in the definition of homelessness in the US code that pertains to all Americans and The US code that pertains to veterans programs So the first US code it's it's title 42 But that would be the one that governs HUD programs, you know things like that for for homeless programs and Then compare that to the one that is for all veterans programs, whether it's DOL VA anything federal now. Here's the difference in 2009 the definition of homelessness for the general population was expanded to include persons fleeing domestic violence and I'm not saying that's limited to women, but I think we could agree. It's disproportionate to women that change still has not been made to title 38 for veterans programs and If we go on to the next slide, I want to show you what a teeny tiny change This is what I have circled in red there and this is a Bill that was introduced to Congress already All they need to do is add or be and the reason that is is because one title quotes The other the definition of a homeless veteran is a veteran who meets the homeless criteria in another US code paragraph a domestic violence is covered in paragraph B So I yeah, I thank you for pointing that out You are absolutely right and this is a that is an ongoing issue with the with the couch surfing Oh, let me let me let me paraphrase if you don't mind she pointed out a different issue with the with the homeless definition and that was of couch surfers and That is that a person who is couch surfing often is denied Homeless services because if they go in and say I'm staying with mom or I'm staying with a friend or I'm staying wherever they're not by definition homeless and That is a problem and so with our services and we do have very intensive employment services provided through grants to Homeless veterans and it's a it's a problem for us too. I'll be very honest with you and with us It kind of comes down to the language that is used when the person applies for the program If they say yes, I am hungry homeless I don't have anywhere to stay or I will be homeless within a week They're approved if they say I'm staying with so-and-so. They're not approved and so that is one of the reasons why I wanted to create an online webinar that goes into the detail of who qualifies for what because if you don't know Who qualifies for what by law You're likely to say one or two words that actually hurt you and I wish it weren't that way and so I was going to mention this later, but I'm so thankful to your comment and for the person who pointed out We didn't hear her. Thank you. If you look at this postcard that I believe was handed out this is Don't have yet. We will make sure that they are handed out. I don't know where they are right now They are okay. Thank you So this is the the webinar is referring to that talks about all of the programs that we have and how to access them and the Definitions what we consider to be homeless, etc. Etc. It's not an exciting webinar because it's heavy in text and links So it is it is useful. It's perfect for service providers that really want to note the letter of the law So I would encourage you to check that out and we made it available in two formats one being YouTube And one being just download the slides and use it however you see fit So I hope that you'll use that if we could go on to the next slide here I'm just going to kind of get back on track here because I want to make sure I don't do a disservice to Kayla here so the The change in the law that I was referring to earlier regarding domestic violence as a qualifier for homelessness This actually has been proposed three times now to Congress. The first was in 2012 and it was not enacted The second was in 2013 and it was not enacted The third was in 2015 and we don't know yet. What will happen? I truly believe it's an oversight because I said it's such a tiny thing It's literally I think five keystrokes and I my personal belief I could be wrong But my personal belief is that the people who are advocating for women and they are experts in issues disproportionate to women Are not speaking to The experts in the veteran community who are advocating for veterans and that's what we really need to change We need the veterans community to be looking at issues that are disproportionate to women and that's why I that's why I want to raise awareness of this So if we can go on to the next slide it's because of all of these things that I've been talking about that's why we have a women veteran program and My dream my goal is to at some point be completely unnecessary and for us to even not really need the term women veteran anymore because it's obvious that Veteran includes women and I can't wait until the day that we get there, but we're not there yet So my primary role is to make sure that our programs at Department of Labor veterans employment and training service known as Dior vets are meeting the needs of women veterans I do a lot of analysis and then the results of that analysis depending on what they are may go toward policy recommendations One example being that we did change our definition of homelessness to include domestic violence and the other being engagement at to increase awareness of our services and to Try to overcome some of these myths and stigmas about who a veteran is and I do think that needs to be an all-hands-on-deck effort So again, I hope that you will visit our website the the link is up here, and it's also on these postcards It's dol.gov slash vets click on women veterans and There you will see you'll see some handouts in fact the handouts you have available today They're there for downloads as PDFs You'll also see two webinars now that are up there one. I already mentioned. It's the employment assistance for women veterans webinar It's all about our services who qualifies for what and then the other one is pretty new It's basically a nine-minute version of what you're getting today So I know nine minutes is probably a lot better than than listening to me for as long as as you already have today So I hope that you will check those out one thing about our services that that I would like to point out is the the DevOps we we being Department of Labor veterans employment and training service funds two positions in American job centers nationwide and the American job centers provide the employment services Two of those positions work only with veterans. So one is a diva Called a disabled veteran employment program specialist they work directly with veterans and The other is a lever a local veteran employment representative that works directly with employers to make sure that we have the jobs for the veterans and I was really pleased in the last workshop To see that DAV's employment program was working directly with our devops and leavers. So I was really happy about that Another thing I'm really happy about is a study that was conducted by our chief evaluation office at Department of Labor about a year ago showed that there was less of a wage gap among women who worked with a diva Then there was among women non-veterans using comparable services And so, you know, I really want to get the word out about these services so that more women veterans will utilize them so going on to the next slide and I'll be quick on this one the other the rest of my job is really spent on implementing a cultural shift and The Department of Labor has always served women veterans because we've always served women In fact, we have our own women's bureau that advocates for all working women And we've always had vets working for veterans we've only had our women veteran program for three years now and because the veteran community has traditionally been predominantly male As times we do have to make sure that we're seeing a cultural shift And I'm happy to say that we are currently seeing one at the Department of Labor our advisory committee It currently is 50 percent female and we didn't say we're going to have 50 percent female What we did was the when we very recently had the opportunity to solicit new nominations for committee members We made a real effort to get the word out there to women veteran communities And so we simply had more nominations than we ever had in the past and we're seeing a Cultural shift with our leadership, too I saw our own assistant secretary Mr. Michaud at the women's Bureau's equal payday event and and I was really proud that that my leader at vets Was was there to learn more about women's pay issues Going on to the next slide So what can we do to support women veterans in terms of employment economic security? There's something that everybody can do and so these are not meant to put anybody in a box It's just some ideas. I think probably you'll see things in all of them that you can use So if we could go on to the next slide Lawmakers and lobbyers lobbyists I put this one on there particularly for My most senior leader and when he goes out to talk to his contacts on the hill etc The hill in DC and that was that we really need that code that I referenced earlier to change So that persons fleeing domestic violence are considered homeless in the veteran community And I would also like to see that entire US code reviewed to see if there are any other places where a few words Are actually doing a disservice to women Going on to the next slide Title 38 and At the very end you're gonna see my email address Please if there's anything you need details on please contact me anytime. I'd be thrilled to help Women veteran advocates are amazing and in my current role. I've really had the pleasure of meeting so many of them The problem is they're few far between and there's over two million women veterans So what I ask them to do now is to not only keep doing what you're doing and please try to multiply if you can But also let's teach others what we do, you know If you're a women veteran advocate, can you teach the veteran community what you do and why you do it and maybe teach the Women community the same thing so that it becomes so institutionalized that everybody's doing it next slide please Other advocates and supporters and when I say other I really mean all hands on deck It might be a physician. It might be a clergy member You know, I really think that women veterans often don't tell people when they're struggling So if you happen to be the one that finds out she's struggling financially or hurting to find a job or Suffering or maybe she is a couch surfer if you're the one person who happens to find out I don't care if you're a physician or a clergy member or a neighbor I want you to know how to help her and you can do that in like 10 seconds We now even have phone apps to get to our services so I ask everybody to just be aware of our employment services and Next slide, please. Oh, I'm sorry. You're there So the veteran employment service providers that would be the folks like me that work at DOL vets But out there in the field the divops I mentioned And everybody in that field I asked them to ask all of their potential clients have you ever served in the military and Note that I did not say are you a veteran because we find that have you ever served in the military gets a better response And I think that's true for men too. The term veteran can be very confusing. Some people think oh, I didn't serve in combat I'm not a veteran etc. Etc. So we ask you to use that term I would also ask them to Remind their employers remind their peers to include women in their imaging Imaging can make such a huge difference on whether or not she feels like that is a place for her and Refusing to make assumptions. I was once on a panel Where I had a gentleman in the audience who came up to me afterwards and he said no offense But I didn't think I needed to be in this particular panel at all I only came to give your fellow panelists a hard time because I work with her and he said I'm so glad that I did Because I did not understand That it's 1 in 63 women is a veteran I didn't get it and he said I don't think that I have ever personally overlooked women veterans But I can now see that I stood by while others did and I didn't speak up and he said that's never gonna happen again So, you know, it's it's not enough for us to monitor ourselves. We have to educate others on this issue and Employers supervisors and human resource personnel next slide, please So employers often ask well, what can I where do I find women veterans? Well, I don't just have a database of all the women veterans But we asked them to use our American job centers We've got almost 2,500 nationwide and if they're receiving services from us, that's how you're going to get to them But there are also some some other tips that that I asked them to do I asked them to watch their imaging and make sure that it is being inclusive if they already have workplace Flexibilities that are very attractive to a lot of women. I asked them You know, are you marketing those in your in your veteran program so that women can see them a couple of things that? That I think people don't necessarily think about One is being very clear in your job postings about required versus preferred Regardless of veteran status women are far less likely than men to apply for a job If they don't meet each and every single criteria men will meet one out of ten and say, oh, I'm the best and they'll apply anyway Um, and please take no offense when I say that I Actually read a research study that quoted that so much better than I just did so please forgive me there But that is a gender trend and then and there's nothing wrong with that. That's good for the men That's probably why they don't have this, you know, we have a wage gap in this country And so I asked employers to be very clear I've had employers call me and they said I want to hire veterans and then when they go through who they want to hire I Wouldn't qualify for that job. I've never met anybody who'd qualify for that job and they say, oh, no, that's just that's just preferred Wait, that's not all required. Okay. Well, let's start over that You know and be real clear about what's required versus preferred And looking at the wage gap I asked them to really think about if they are employers who negotiate for salary To really be clear in what's negotiable and what is not negotiable women are less likely than men to negotiate and Some would say well, why don't they just learn to negotiate like men? Well, there's actually been research that shows that they can really be at a disadvantage if they do Because we don't necessarily like women to act like men and then we don't like them and don't want to work with them It's crazy and there are much smarter people than me trying to figure out this whole wage gap thing But it is a very real thing. So with negotiation one of the things that that I ask employers to to be mindful of is that if your strongest Negotiation tool is past salary You're doing women a disservice Because if they have ever experienced wage gap They're now being held to it in each job that they hold after that So instead of looking at instead of looking at well, what did your last employer pay you? No, let's talk about what are we going to pay you to do and what's what is that worth? And I think that's something that a lot of people just don't don't realize and so You know, I hope we can can really start sharing the word with that Okay, so if we can go two slides forward, please. So this is my last slide. Yeah, I know you're all happy This is this is some some screen captures of of our website DOL gov slash vets you can either then type in slash women veterans or you can click on that red box that says women veterans We are going to be making it look better in the future. It's not the sexiest website However, it is useful. It has handouts. It has webinars and in the next year So I'm going to be adding more webinars that are currently in development So I hope that you will use our our our website. So thank you for bearing with me I think I went a bit long there and I will hand it back over to our moderator Thank you Nancy, I just want to remind everyone that there are some cards Going around for you to complete giving us an evaluation of the seminar the content and recommendations for the next Seminar that we have and we'll move right along. We are pleased to present Miss Kayla Williams She's the director of the VA Center for Women Veterans where she serves as the primary advisor advisor to the secretary on department policies programs and legislation that affect women veterans in addition she oversees the center's activities which include monitoring and coordinating VA's administration of health care benefits services and programs to women veterans Serving as an advocate for cultural transformation both within VA and in the general public in Recognizing the service and contributions of women veterans and service members and raising the awareness and responsibilities To treat women veterans with dignity and respect Prior to coming to VA Miss Williams spent eight years at the Rand Corporation Conducting research on service member and veteran health needs and benefits international security and intelligence policy She spent five years enlisted in the US Army as an Arabic linguist which included a year-long guess Which included a year-long operation Iraqi freedom deployment while serving and the 101st Airborne Division Miss Williams is a member of the Army Education advisory committee a former member of the VA advisory committee on women veterans a 2013 White House women veteran champion of change and a 2015 Lincoln Awards recipient She has a BA in English from Bowling Green State University and an MA in international relations from American University Miss Williams Miss Williams is the author of love my rifle more than you young and female and in the US Army and Plenty of time when we get home Love and recovery in the aftermath of war both published by WW Norton, please give a warm welcome to Miss Williams Besides, I'll do the clicker. Thank you so much for that wonderful introduction Sharanda, thank you to DAV for having me and thanks to all of you for being in this room to learn and Share and show your support of women veterans. I'm super excited because this is the most enthusiastic crowd I have ever had the privilege to address in my life What I'm going to go over today is the mission of the Center for Women Veterans a brief history of And and demographics on women veterans the state of women veterans in four life domains And what VA is doing to support them in those areas and talk a little bit about some of the strategic partnerships that we are engaged in So my office was actually created by law and it has a number of Mandated functions which include advising VA and other stakeholders on policies programs and laws related to women veterans Disseminating information and supporting the independent VA advisory committee on women veterans Sharanda actually talked about our core mission a little bit in my bio and I wanted to just give you a little anecdote about why I know personally and viscerally How important the effort for cultural transformation both within and outside VA really is So my husband and I Adopted a German shepherd several years ago and she was very high strong not gonna say dogs are like their owners, but She ended up getting escaping one day and getting hit by car and Losing a leg so I had a three-legged dog and one day I was walking my dog in the park and an older gentleman came up to me and said Was it an IUD and I said excuse me And he said did she lose her leg to an IUD No, she I think you mean IED and She is not a retired military working dog also contraceptives not But as I walked away it occurred to me that on site alone More people had assumed that my dog was a combat vet than that I was and That's what we are all pushing up against and What Nancy was talking about how folks are so unlikely to have encountered somebody that they know is a woman vet that many of us feel invisible and unrecognized and so Everyone in this room can be a part of pushing for that incredibly important cultural transformation So if that gentleman served he may never have encountered a woman in the military We were limited by law to about 2% of the force for many years since then we've grown to be roughly 16 percent of the total force and accordingly Women are now one of the fastest growing subgroups of veterans our representation is expected to grow from About nine and a half percent today to about ten and a half percent in 2020 and compared to our male counterparts We skew younger and more ethnically diverse So when I'm thinking about the reintegration challenges that I faced and that other veterans may encounter when Transitioning out of the military service and beyond this is kind of the conceptual model that I'm using to frame my thinking It was developed by some of my former colleagues at Rand these for life domains health housing stability financial status and Social support are all interrelated and likely to influence one another Which I tried to show by these bi-directional arrows that go both ways And I'm gonna talk now about how women veterans are doing in these four areas So in terms of health we know That military women are more likely to have had certain adverse experiences in childhood But as I'm sure you all remember you also have to meet certain standards to join the military So we enter the military with both risk and protective factors for our long-term health And then during our service compared to men we are disproportionately likely to experience sexual harassment or assault and Like men we may also experience combat and other environmental exposures Now of women veterans who use VHA health care over half have a service-connected disability rating and the top eight Domains of their medical conditions are actually the same as those for male VHA patients Just the difference the the frequencies of the order in which they appear are different between those populations and Just like in the civilian sector women use more health care from men I'm gonna try really hard to stop myself for making any jokes about my husband refusing to go to the doctor In terms of housing stability Women are about 9% of the homeless veteran population so roughly similar to their share of the overall population But we are more likely than women who have never served to experience homelessness Research shows that some of the risk factors for homelessness among women veterans include having experienced military sexual assault Unemployment disability poor health and certain mental health conditions Protective factors include having a college degree being married. So those those interrelated domains, right? these things affect one another and With collaborative efforts involving many partners and innovations like housing first We've made a great deal of progress over six years the number of homeless veterans has dropped almost 50% Those are the most recent numbers that Obama mentioned is his speech the other day So this is really exciting encouraging progress, which does not mean the effort is over But we seem to be really headed in the right direction Now in terms of financial status as you can see on the slide women veterans have slightly mixed financial status compared to men veterans But stronger financial status than women non veterans in addition a higher percent of women veterans work in management and professional Occupations and in the public sector as well compared to either group So Nancy went into great detail on employment, which is awesome So I don't have to talk about that But what I really want to drive home is that what this slide says to me what these numbers show me is that we are Incredible assets to our communities when we leave military service and reintegrate into the civilian sector We have valuable skills higher education levels and leadership training That said you can see that there are segments of the women veteran population who are struggling financially In terms of social support and engagement women veterans are less likely to be married than men veterans or women non veterans and Research has shown that maintaining Social support of military peers after serving is associated with better outcomes for women veterans We also know that women veterans Especially older ones as Nancy pointed out are slightly less likely to self-identify as vets and often report feeling invisible and Unrecognized and that's one of the reasons that I truly believe that organizations like DAV can be so important It provides a way for women veterans to engage with our peers women have high levels of civic engagement in terms of their rates of volunteering and voting and so forth and Finding ways for us to do those things with other women veterans who recognize our experiences can be incredibly important So each of those five domains can also be influenced by intervention shown by the black arrows VA along with partners in the public private and nonprofit sector including of course DAV are Able to influence the trajectory of women veterans lives by providing or connecting veterans to needed services if they do encounter difficulties and challenges So now I'm going to spend a little bit of time talking about what VA is doing in each of those four domains for women So as the number of women veterans using VHA health care has grown to over half a million We have dramatically expanded the services we offer to include comprehensive primary and specialty health care It is incredibly important to me that women veterans know That if they come to VA for health care, they are more likely to get recommended care Including gender-specific care like cervical cancer and breast cancer screenings Then you are in other sectors of care VA health facilities have women veteran program managers designated women's health providers MST Coordinators coordinators mill and maternity care coordinators to help ensure that women vets get the care that we need And we operate a women veterans call center which now has a chat function if you want to use it online instead of talking on the phone I got updated figures as of February 2016 the women veteran call center has received over 32,000 incoming calls and made over 278,000 Successful outbound calls that's calling out to reach and touch women veterans and see if they need help accessing any of The services that they're eligible for all the operators are women And I see you've gotten handouts about some of the new mobile apps that are aimed at women veteran health care needs So when VA is really working hard to make sure that we Rectify some of the historical gaps in terms of ensuring that we are able to provide all of the health care needs that women have In terms of housing stability These are some of the resources available through VA for veterans who are homeless or at risk of homelessness SSVF Which is supportive services for veteran families that is also aimed at prevention So it is one of the programs that we have that is dedicated on the population that came up earlier of those who may not are not unsheltered who may be couchsurfing or and still have Somewhere to stay but are not in stable housing so that they can prevent a slide deeper into homelessness And SSVF despite the gap in title 38 that Nancy mentioned SSVF does offer additional financial assistance for those fleeing domestic violence in Fiscal year 15 women veterans were about 14% of those assisted with SSVF 12% of those assisted with HUD VASH and 7% of those provided services through Grant and per diem that's the one that I think most people think of when they When they think about the fact that historically women veterans were less well-served through VA's homeless programs Great and per diem is often Situations that are aimed really primarily at single men Each VA regional office has a homeless veteran coordinator as well as women veteran minority in MST Coordinators and we also operate a call center for homeless veterans, which is 877 for aid vet and When it comes to financial status I want to mention that between 2014 and 2015 the numbers of women veterans receiving disability Compensation went up 9% those using GI bill education benefits went up 12% Women veterans using vocational rehab and employment went up 8% and those using VA guaranteed home loans went up 41% So on a personal note, I am service-connected I use the Montgomery GI bill so to show my age a little bit there Wish I'd waited a few more years and I've had two VA back-to-home loans So I can personally attest to the value that VA brought in my reintegration process and ultimate success as a civilian I also use VA health care exclusively So when I talk about the importance of VA benefits and VA services It is not just from a personal but from a from a professional but also from a personal standpoint I have been lucky enough to generally have very good experiences and my goal at my job is to ensure that all Women veterans have access to the same high-quality care and efficient provision of benefits that I was lucky enough to get On the in terms of social support on a local level a growing number of VA facilities have been hosting events aimed at women veterans I know of conferences in Wyoming and Hawaii to throw out just two examples Women are among those involved in the peer specialist program in which specially trained and certified veterans help their peers who are also in treatment for mental health conditions Navigate the system, which we all know can be a little complicated and achieve their goals Disabled women veterans participate in a variety of adaptive sports programs at the national level And I know local facilities have a lot of different rehab programs that are also open to women My husband did a golf program through the DC VA We at the time had two children under age two and when he told me that he was going for rehab to play golf for four hours every Sunday I was a little suspicious at first But it really really did help him so if Especially those I know a lot of people who have tried seeing a psychiatrist and not had a good experience And I say you know look if you tried toothpaste and didn't like the flavor. Would you quit brushing your teeth forever? No, you would try a new flavor So if you tried seeing a psychiatrist and it didn't work go try psychologist go try one of these Rehab programs that does therapeutic sports try something else until you find what works and fits for you so Secretary McDonald's vision for VA is to be the number one Customer service agency in the federal government the my VA initiative employs transformation strategies that are about achieving that vision and Rebuilding trust with veterans their families and survivors and the American people It has a number of different breakthrough Priorities and strategies that make up a concerted approach to leverage VA's immense scope and scale So that we can give every veteran an exceptional experience that is easy consistent and memorable my VA represents an Unprecedented opportunity to ensure that women veterans are considered during every stage of this transformation and Representing women veterans during that shift is one of my top priorities So as a VA patient, I have been called mr. Williams by clerks who are looking down at their computer Who assumed that I must be a man parking lot attendants have tried to direct me to employee parking before I worked at VA And you know, I've heard all of you recognizing murmuring in agreement as I've talked about this as Nancy's talked about this as Charanda's Talked about similar experiences So that's why we actively support campaigns like some of these featured on the screen that are working towards cultural transformation within VA to ensure that all women veterans are recognized and treated with the dignity and respect that they have earned I know DAV has been deeply involved in raising awareness about women veterans and the challenges They face for many years now, and I'm incredibly grateful for that support This is more than we can do alone We need to work within our communities as well so that all veterans recognize the true diversity of our community Here just just yesterday when I was going up to my room wearing my badge and carrying my backpack that says DAV another attendee a man Explained to me that the convention was for disabled veterans. I'm like That's not the norm and I see from the attendees in this room that there is tremendous Interest among the entire DAV community to learn more about women veterans but just as Nancy said it isn't coming upon all of us to speak up and help raise awareness when it is needed hopefully politely but It means a great deal to me that so many women vets are in this room wearing the hats to proudly own their Identities and show anybody at this convention anybody walking by in the street any of the hotel employees that we are veterans to In addition to not being recognized or treated with dignity and respect some of the other Barriers that we have identified for women veterans Include lack of transportation difficulty finding childcare lack of awareness of benefits and services and being perceived as victims rather than assets All of these are areas that strategic partners can affect I know the DAV transportation network is vitally important in helping ill and injured veterans get to medical appointments And Nancy talked about some of the Department of Labor employment programs So I want to tell you about two of the partnerships that my office is engaged in right now The first is Academy women They offer a number of programs for women cadets service members and veterans We're very excited about their e-mentor program, which is an online mentoring program for military personnel Veterans and military spouses. It has served over 4,000 women since 2008 over 350 organizations contribute mentors and Protégés report very strong satisfaction ratings and extremely high job placement rates and The next is lean-in women veterans appear to peer virtual program that allows any woman veteran to participate in Moderated lean-in circles supported by free tools and resources this effort just launched at the end of May and they're already 255 members in 21 different circles and there's also a pilot face-to-face circle in Seattle, Washington So before I wrap up I want to touch on One thing that I think unfortunately we tend to neglect when we talk about VA, which is the National Cemetery administration So while women are accessing VBA benefits at roughly similar rates to men and make up about seven and a half percent of VHA patients We are significantly under represented in VA cemeteries. Some of that is just a function of demographics I understand that since we were limited by law to 2% of the military for many years and the women who served in That era are currently most likely to need burial and memorial services. It's it's just logical that we are less represented However lack of awareness of this benefit or our eligibility for it could also come into play So please help ensure that the women veterans, you know are aware that they may be eligible for burial and one of the 134 VA national cemeteries in 40 states that are currently open There are also state sites and many women veterans like me are in dual military marriages So know that those couples may choose separate or shared grave sites for those who've already passed You can honor their service now By requesting a retroactively a presidential memorial certificate or a medallion like the one shown on the screen That can be affixed to private headstones. There are eligibility details and a lot more information on the NCA website Which is listed up on the screen So here is more information about how to contact the Center for Women Veterans Please check out our website We just revamped it to make it easier to navigate and include more information that is relevant to women veterans Including a news stream that's updated with news stories every weekday Research medical research that's been published Opportunities to participate in VA research resources blogs and much more Shironda mentioned the million veteran program. That's one that I really encourage women veterans to sign up for I've signed up for it. It's really not hard. It doesn't take much of your time But you know coming from Rand I'm a little bit of a nerd too like Nancy and I know that if not enough of a sign up they are not going to have enough participants to get good data and We have to take part in this if we want to benefit from all of the research that will come out of this So please sign up for the million veteran program. They are here today and you can sign up They're about halfway there to their goal of getting a million veterans by the way So let's make sure that at least nine and a half percent of that million are women Help me on this So also Please engage with us on social media. We use the hashtag women vets Those tweets pop up on our site and I share interesting stories and updates regularly on Twitter and Facebook I have a lot of people say oh, don't rely too much on social media because you know veterans are of diverse age groups I'm like, you know, my mom spends a lot more time on Facebook than I do Don't jump to conclusions, okay And I really want to thank you once again for this opportunity for me to share a little bit about the state of women Vets more broadly and what VA is doing to serve our community and I really hope that we have enough time for some discussions because I Care very much about hearing from women in DAV About the issues that are affecting you and what we can do to Continually improve the woman veterans experience at VA. Thank you so much