{"id":20685,"date":"2018-09-07T19:03:39","date_gmt":"2018-09-07T19:03:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/09\/07\/secretary-promises-va-will-be-more-welcoming-to-women\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T20:30:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T20:30:28","slug":"secretary-promises-va-will-be-more-welcoming-to-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/veterans\/2018\/09\/07\/secretary-promises-va-will-be-more-welcoming-to-women\/","title":{"rendered":"Secretary promises VA will be more \u2018welcoming\u2019 to women veterans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/veterans\/2018\/07\/23\/senate-confirms-robert-wilkie-as-next-va-secretary-but-with-opposition\/\" target=_blank>Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie<\/a> said his department \u201cneeds to be more welcoming to women veterans\u201d and promised improvements at the bureaucracy in months to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe are on the cusp of a great change,\u201d Wilkie told veterans attending the inaugural meeting of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.servicewomen.org\/press-releases\/military-womens-organizations-unite-to-form-national-coalition\/\" target=_blank>Military Women\u2019s Coalition<\/a> in Georgia on Friday. \u201cThis is not my father\u2019s or my grandfather\u2019s VA. It is now your VA. We have to change how we do business, and that means making the institution more welcoming.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wilkie did not offer specifics on policies or programs to \u201cmake sure the needs of our fighting women are taken care of,\u201d but he did acknowledge that <a href=\"https:\/\/rebootcamp.militarytimes.com\/news\/transition\/2018\/05\/08\/not-your-grandfathers-va-nationwide-baby-showers-honor-veteran-mothers\/\" target=_blank>women veterans<\/a> are the fastest growing demographic group under the department\u2019s watch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">About 10 percent of the veterans population in America today are women, and that number is expected to rise above 17 percent in the next decade. Wilkie, who previously served as the Pentagon\u2019s top personnel official, said more than 250,000 women service members are stationed throughout the world today.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/veterans\/2018\/08\/21\/report-va-may-have-mishandled-thousands-of-sexual-assault-cases\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"158\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/VA-sign.JPG.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Report: VA may have mishandled thousands of sexual assault cases<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The inspector general estimates that half of cases handled by VA recently may have ignored proper processing rules.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAnd the VA has to change to respond to America\u2019s changes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The coalition, which includes more than 40 separate service women\u2019s advocacy groups, held the event to discuss \u201ccontinued structural and cultural barriers women face during and after their service.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That included discussion of a inspector general report released earlier this month that VA officials may have improperly denied benefits to thousands of military sexual assault victims in recent years, due to paperwork and procedural mistakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The department has come under criticism in recent years for its slow response to complaints about a lack of exam space and health expertise for female patients, as well as administration officials\u2019 refusal to reconsider changing the VA motto of \u201cTo care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan&#8221; to less gender-specific language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wilkie, confirmed to the top VA post in late July, said he recognizes more work needs to be done and promised that \u201cthe department will be walking with you into the rest of the 21st century.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He also noted that several new leadership officials at the department are female veterans, including Chief of Staff Pamela Powers, whose 30-year Air Force career included a deployment to Kuwait as Chief of Staff to the 9th Air Expeditionary Task Force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Service Women from across the nation are in working groups that will decide foundational principles that will guide the <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/MilWomensCoalition?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#MilWomensCoalition<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/39YuqrqtfQ\">pic.twitter.com\/39YuqrqtfQ<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Service Women (SWAN) (@Servicewomen) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Servicewomen\/status\/1038134352788508673?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 7, 2018<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Women make up about 10 percent of American veterans today but are the fastest growing segment of the veterans population.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":42959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":21,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["veterans","news","pentagon-congress","left-column","home","middle-column"],"primary_category":"veterans"},"5":{"categories":["veterans","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","pentagon-congress","left-column","home","middle-column"],"primary_category":"veterans"},"6":{"categories":["veterans","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","pentagon-congress","left-column","home","middle-column"],"primary_category":"veterans"},"7":{"categories":["veterans","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","pentagon-congress","left-column","home","middle-column"],"primary_category":"veterans"},"8":{"categories":["leadership","management","home","daily-brief","newsletters"],"primary_category":"leadership"}}},"categories":[101,24,88,89,16,26,65,21],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3328],"class_list":["post-20685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-left-column","category-middle-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress","category-veterans"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"YIBYBMILRNAHVBE4VZSHV6VQ3Q","arc_canonical_url":"\/veterans\/2018\/09\/07\/secretary-promises-va-will-be-more-welcoming-to-women\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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