I'm a veteran. While serving I saw a lot of abuse of power. A female soldier was raped and thankfully it was on camera so he couldn't deny it. During basic training a drill sergeant had an affair with a female soldier and SHE was let go. A man came to my barracks the night before his wedding and forced his way into my bed, insisting he "enjoy his last night of freedom " (thankfully he eventually left when I insisted).
I’m neither, but my job involves working with veterans. Quite a bit of my coworkers are also veterans, mostly male.
I see a lot of open misogyny. Male veteran patients (especially the older ones) clearly respecting to and listening to male staff members and talking down or being creepy to female staff. My department is mostly women and we all have stories about patients and male staff acting inappropriately toward us…many times the same ones. Male veterans talking to each other in group settings about what kind of women (or as many of them say, “girls”) they like, talking about women in derogatory terms. “Bro culture” where groups of male veterans openly check out female veterans and staff. Male veteran remembering my male coworkers’ names but not knowing mine or my female coworkers’, even if we’ve worked with them for longer.
Male veteran staff members talking about women in terrible ways. One staff said loudly once in front of his entire office, “it’s women Veterans Day but we don’t celebrate because nobody cares about female vets”. Another male staff member who said he was going to marry a woman from a third world country because he said American women are “too difficult”.
I work with female vets who don’t want to do group work with male vets because they’ve experienced sexual assault in the military.
I have wonderful coworkers and I do work with some great Veterans, both male and female who work hard and male vets who have not said one inappropriate thing to me, and great benefits are what keeps me here. But nothing surprises me anymore, and whenever we get a new female coworker or I get a female intern…I warn them about male vets possibly getting creepy and how to shut them down.
.png)
I'm a veteran. While serving I saw a lot of abuse of power. A female soldier was raped and thankfully it was on camera so he couldn't deny it. During basic training a drill sergeant had an affair with a female soldier and SHE was let go. A man came to my barracks the night before his wedding and forced his way into my bed, insisting he "enjoy his last night of freedom " (thankfully he eventually left when I insisted).
The military is not a safe place for women.
I’m neither, but my job involves working with veterans. Quite a bit of my coworkers are also veterans, mostly male.
I see a lot of open misogyny. Male veteran patients (especially the older ones) clearly respecting to and listening to male staff members and talking down or being creepy to female staff. My department is mostly women and we all have stories about patients and male staff acting inappropriately toward us…many times the same ones. Male veterans talking to each other in group settings about what kind of women (or as many of them say, “girls”) they like, talking about women in derogatory terms. “Bro culture” where groups of male veterans openly check out female veterans and staff. Male veteran remembering my male coworkers’ names but not knowing mine or my female coworkers’, even if we’ve worked with them for longer.
Male veteran staff members talking about women in terrible ways. One staff said loudly once in front of his entire office, “it’s women Veterans Day but we don’t celebrate because nobody cares about female vets”. Another male staff member who said he was going to marry a woman from a third world country because he said American women are “too difficult”.
I work with female vets who don’t want to do group work with male vets because they’ve experienced sexual assault in the military.
I have wonderful coworkers and I do work with some great Veterans, both male and female who work hard and male vets who have not said one inappropriate thing to me, and great benefits are what keeps me here. But nothing surprises me anymore, and whenever we get a new female coworker or I get a female intern…I warn them about male vets possibly getting creepy and how to shut them down.