Campaign underway to honor women veterans with California license plate
Women are the fastest-growing segment of the veteran population… and the homeless veteran population.
Despite decades of service, women say they’re often not recognized as veterans.
While no veteran has the same story – there’s a common thread among women.
16:18 “When I initially got out, my husbands in the Marine Corps, his service always, always overshadows mine. No one ever assumes I’m the veteran.”
4:53 “When I did tell people that I served in the Marine Corps or served in combat in Iraq I was often met with, well you’re so petite or your hair so long.”
Questions men often don’t receive.
17:23 “I had a veteran license plate, they thought I was driving my husband’s car. It wasn’t me, I wasn’t the veteran.”
Cynthia Taylor served nearly six years in the Army as a combat swim instructor and logistics specialist.
3:26 “I was stationed in Germany, I ran 38 different warehouses. We supported Africa and all throughout Europe with supplies.”
Skills she uses today in her work supporting women veterans.
“Baby and infant clothes, and then we have toys here.”
But she faced a new uphill battle entirely entering the civilian world.
9:35 “I had very little savings, I didn’t have a job, I ended up moving back with my parents, because they don’t prepare you for any of that. Don’t know your benefits, what’s available to you, because they don’t share it with you.”
And the sisterhood she once had all but disappeared.
“You just feel so disconnected and it was really isolating and lonely.”
7:12 “You don’t serve with a ton of women and when you transition, you certainly don’t transition out into some sort of sisterhood.”
More often single parents, Jodie Grenier says the isolation and barriers to health care are compounded for women.
2:24 “Women have served this country long before they even had the right to vote.”
But she says society – and a VA health care system designed to serve men – haven’t caught up to recognizing the rise of women service members.
Their nonprofit, Foundation for Women Warriors, is campaigning to make California the 19th state with a women’s veteran license plate.
22:59 “This is not an initiative to say women veterans need their own thing, but until society realizes that women are veterans as well, this is just another way that we can honor the service of these women.”
Designed by a woman who served in Vietnam, the license plate will be available statewide after the DMV receives 50 paid applications.
32 “Having something that symbolizes the woman as the veteran really speaks volumes and honors her service, that she is the one that made the sacrifice. “We owe it to that individual to make sure they don’t become homeless, that they are offered the same chances as their male counterparts.”
More than symbolic, they hope it will connect women to one another.
12:12 “I really look forward to the day when I can honk my horn and wave and say, thank you for your service, and know that it’s a woman vehicle.”
