New York State surveying female veterans, gauging how best to fill their needs

New York State has sent out a survey aiming to collect feedback on what programs should be created or changed to fit what female veterans say they need.

The online survey, crafted by the state's Department of Veterans’ Services and sent out in late April, is called the Women Veterans Well-being Survey.

It is made up almost entirely of multiple choice questions and takes about two minutes to fill out. The questions, aimed especially at former service members who may be unemployed, cover topics like jobs, child care, education, health care, housing, mental health services and more.

Nneka Bell, the chairwoman for the New York State Women Veterans Advisory Committee, said the survey is meant to be a tool to listen to female veterans’ needs.

Bell, a Navy veteran who was stationed in Virginia on the USS Nimitz as an undesignated seaman, recalled that after she left the Navy, "I didn't know that there were services that were provided to me as a woman vet."

"I think far too often we've been invisible in systems, the system seems to be originally built for men, so listening to the women is just like a first step toward justice," she said. "So the survey gives women across New York a safe, simple way to be heard."

Bell said the survey is a chance for women veterans to not just be counted and collected as data points, but to be understood.

"It's about showing up for those who've already given so much," she said. "I want women to understand that we see them, we understand, we know ... because they need to be heard."

Lessie Branch, a member of the women veterans advisory committee and a special assistant with the Department of Veterans’ Services, said the survey is about more than just data collection.

"The idea is to empower women veterans and amplify their voices about what they need," Branch said.

She served in the Navy from 1982 to 1986, and worked mainly with jets and submarines. She said once the survey closes on Dec. 31, the committee will make recommendations to the state.

So far, the survey has 79 responses statewide. Branch said the goal is to collect responses from every county. 

"As a female veteran, and just as a female, it's very infrequent that women's input is solicited," she said. "It's important for people to hear what it is that those who have served might need, what their challenges are as a way for the country to then provide programming or policy or resources, as a way to say ‘thank you for your service.’"

Ozias "Rosiey" Batista is a veterans benefit adviser and a women veterans coordinator for New York State. She is also an Army veteran who served for almost four years, starting in 1997 in a communications battalion.

Batista worked to lay down phone cable lines from one military camp to another location, among other duties. She said female service members deal with many obstacles in the military and afterward.

"When you leave the military, you're not taught how to be a civilian again," Batista said. "And a lot of people have issues on how to readjust to the civilian lifestyle."

Batista said besides that, many female service members in the Army also deal with sexism and a large wage gap. Batista said being young, Latina and a woman in the Army were hurdles she had to deal with. Despite that, she said, her time in the military made her into the woman she is today.

"I didn't have the knowledge or someone to provide me with a [helping] hand or guide me in the right direction," she said. "So I don't want other service personnel to endure the same obstacles that I did."