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Women Describe Their Struggles With Gender Roles in Military

In his article, Benedict Carey, a New York Times reporter, writes about the struggles that female soldiers face in the intensely male world of the United States military.

According to Army data, female soldiers are more likely than male soldiers to report depressive symptoms, and women are 10 times more likely than their male counterparts to have reported serious sexual harassment after deployment. The risk of suicide among female soldiers tripled during deployment.

In 2014, The Times asked female soldiers and veterans to share their experiences in the military. More than 150 people responded. Here is a selection of their words:

Diana Kramer. She has been deployed overseas five times, most recently in Qatar. She was the only woman assigned to her unit in four of her five deployments.

Marylin Woodman She was deployed overseas three times, each time serving in units where women made up 10 to25 percent of the squad.

Jeanette Martinez. She was one of three women deployed to a military base in Afghanistan.

Sonia Kendrick. She was deployed to South Korea and Afghanistan.

Jennifer Bennie. She was deployed twice in the Persian Gulf. On her second deployment, she estimates, 30 percent of her crew were women.

J.L. Chamberlain. She was deployed to Afghanistan as an engineer. She was one of three women in a unit of 81.

Susanne Rossignol. She was deployed to Iraq in 2004-05.

Stephanie Christopher. She was deployed in Iraq twice as an officer in an artillery unit and says she “was consistently the only female on regular convoys.”

Vanessa M. Remus. She was deployed to Iraq in 2010-11 with the California Army National Guard to provide logistics support for southern Iraq.

Charlene Basden. She was deployed on the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Rachel Evans. She was deployed in Iraq for 10 months. Half of the soldiers in her support battalion were women.

Alexandra Stokman Brackett. She was deployed to Iraq twice as the only female officer in her company.

Lauren Grigsby. She was deployed on two tours of Al Taqaddum, Iraq, as a second lieutenant and then as a company commander.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 10 of the New York edition with the headline: In Their Own Words. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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