Scoping Documeant by lois.wg

CMWR

Centre for Military Women’s Research

Scoping Document

Lois Willett-Green, Lindsay Fiedler, Amy McWhirter

Who? What? When? Where? Why?

The Anglia Ruskin university has 6 campuses located across the South Eastern part of the UK, with one in Cambridge, Chelmsford, Writtle, Peterborough and two in London.

As well as having a wide selection of undergraduate and post graduate courses, it is also home to 6 research institutions covering a wide breadth of subjects from sustainability to music therapy, each hoping to have a positive impact of the world.

The one we are specifically interested in is the Veterans and Families Institute for Military Socials Research (VFI).

The VFI aim to improve the well-being of veterans, service personnel, and their families through world leading research, policy development and consultation on the impact of the military service.

Within the VFI there are 4 main areas of research, the CMWR is part of the Women and equalities sector and started in 2022 as a result of a national report (‘We also served’) that was published in 2021.

This report highlighted a knowledge gap surrounding women and other minority groups and how they fare following military service as well as a lack of understanding of women’s experiences in military communities, and how this can later impact their civilian lives.

The project is run by Dr Lauren Godier-McBard (mixed methods researcher for mental health).

Their main aim is to understand, inform, and improve the health and well-being of women both in the military and for veterans. They do this via collaborative research (with a number of different stake holders from military members to academics and charities) and evaluation.

Project Examples

Female veterans’ physical healthcare needs and support preferences

A collaboration project with King’s College London (King’s Centre for Military Health Research), the Royal British Legion, the Veterans’ Trauma Network (Imperial College London) and the Defence Medical Welfare Service aimed at providing specialist healthcare service for veterans.

Service justice system experiences of female ex-service personnel who are victims of military sexual violence

A project aimed at looking into service women’s experiences of sexual violence and analysis of the military justice system.

Public attitudes towards women in the military community

A project where an Ipsos Mori house hold survey was commissioned to explore public perception and attitude towards service women, followed by analysis.

Lived experience of female veterans in criminal justice & prison systems

A project aimed at recording narrative accounts of the unique experiences of female veteran offenders (FVO) and their journeys. Whilst looking into any additional needs they may have relating to their veteran status and gender.

Co-production

One aspect that we particularly admired about the CWMR is their approach to Co-Production. This involves ensuring a range of military members are involved in each area of research from design to dissemination.

The CWMR value equality in power when it comes to decisions making. Lived experiences allow the CMWR team a much deeper understanding into what women and veteran in the military community want and need but more importantly they deserve.

Forces Employment Charity: Military Women Programme

The Military Women Programme helps ex-Forces personnel gain meaningful occupation in a range of sectors and positions, including entry-level jobs, managerial positions, self-employment and specialist roles.

Salute Her UK

Team Salute Her are the only UK ‘gender specific’ support service, to offer tri-service, trauma informed, mental health therapy and interventions for survivors of in-service sexual abuse.

Royal British Legion: Support for Women who are Currently Serving or Have Served

Provides support for those serving, guidance for transitioning and exservice people and allows access to support from Armed forces and civilian charities.

Combat Stress For Veterans’ Mental Health: Women’s Veterans Research

Combat Stress, working with the Women’s Royal Army Corps Association, recruited 750 women veterans for a series of studies to better understand the experiences and challenges faced by women service personnel and veterans. They carried out a following qualitative study called ENHANCE which focuses on improving access to best-evidence treatment for military sexual trauma.

Female Veterans Transformation

The aim is to produce a tool kit for use by service providers in the commercial, statutory and charitable sectors, helping transform service provision for female veterans - the 250,000 strong group whose specific needs are not being addressed by current service provision.

It’s not been produced yet but the research is underway at the moment. Their research is carried out at FiMT Research Centre, who’s website has published a few articles related to military women.

11.4% of Regular Forces are female, which is 19,590 personnel.

Female veterans face more barriers to employment than male ones and this is partly due to many having greater childcare or caring responsibilities.

Some 52% of the 100 women interviewed reported they had been sexually assaulted whist serving.

Research in the USA also indicated that nearly 12% of women veterans experience PTSD — almost double the rate of their male counterparts.

In 2018, the suicide rate for women veterans was almost twice that of women who did not serve (RAND Corporation).

To date, research on military and veteran mental health and experiences has focused on the male majority, and comparatively little is known about military service and life as a veteran for women.

Across different countries’ militaries, Military Sexual Trauma has been shown to be prevalent and disproportionately impact women. As a result, MST is considered to be one of the leading causes of PTSD among serving and former-serving women.

“Statistics show women are often over-skilled and underused, under-promoted and under-paid.”

Government and policy holders

Aim is to make legal changes to the justice system within military services and the support systems for female veterans.

Young women thinking about joining the army

Encourage them to join the British army and not be put off by the fact that it is male dominated, reassuring them that the army is becoming a safer place for women.

Female military personal and veterans

Providing support for women still in the army, women transitioning and ex-veterans, helping them to get justice.

General Public

Making the general public recognise the service that these women have provided their country, and show the general public that things will be changing for women in the military.