Military family advocate Kathy Roth-Douquet told Hill.TV on Friday that female servicemembers are more likely than their male counterparts to struggle to obtain basic services such as child care.
“The experience of women in uniform we’re seeing is very different from the experience of men,” Roth-Douquet, the CEO of Blue Star Families, told Jamal Simmons and Buck Sexton on “Rising.”
“They’re leaving sooner. An interesting question we had is, ‘can you find child care to meet your needs?’ [In] dual military households, a male and a female, the man says ‘yes, I do,’ the female says ‘no, I don’t,’ ” she continued.
“[Seventy-nine] percent of servicewomen in their first year of duty stationed do not have child care to meet their needs,” Roth-Douquet said, referring to the results of the Blue Star Families 2018 Military Family Lifestyle Survey.
The report found that 17 percent of the military is made up of women, and that number is on the rise.
However, the military is still grappling with a series of issues impacting women, including sexual misconduct and sexism.
The Blue Star report found that 1 in 4 women serving in the military report experiencing military sexual trauma.
— Julia Manchester
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