Canadian military personnel serving Operation PRESENCE (Mali).
Photo Credit: Cpl Charest, CAF/DND
Esprit de Corps Magazine August 2019 // Volume 26 Issue 7
Let's Talk About Women in the Military – Column 6
by Military Woman
You asked:
Your article last month about the Elsie Initiative Women Peace Operations Baseline Study gave me some new insights into the challenges facing uniformed women from around the world who want to participate fully on UN missions. Do uniformed Canadian women face any of these same barriers to participating on UN or other missions?
We answered:
Thanks for asking! Happy to inform you that Canada has asked DCAF (Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance) to conduct a baseline study on just that question for uniformed Canadian women. Hopefully by early 2020 a report will be available to answer your question based on current data and experiences.
While we wait for that report, let's do a shallow dive into one of the barriers identified in the DCAF report that will potentially impact all deployed women, Canadians included: "lack of sex specific medical care." The Directorate of Peacekeeping Operations acknowledges this as a systemic barrier and has recommended that every deployed medical unit should have at least one female physician as well as a gynecologist specialist.
Ensuring the presence of appropriate medical care providers is, however, only one step of many to address women's health needs on deployment. Work is still needed to increase the general awareness and knowledge of women's health issues by both the uniformed women themselves and their potential health care providers. Ensuring a female military physician presence is not a guarantee that they are current on operational specific women's health care issues. Likewise, the presence of a female military physician is also not a guarantee that the medical supplies and medications specific to sex specific medical issues is systemically available.
Many UN mission locations are in hotter and more humid environments than most Canadians are used to living in. When that is combined with austere hygiene conditions, an increased rate of female specific medical issues such as rashes, infections and menstrual irregularities is to be expected. Nielsen (2009) reported that 35% of US servicewomen in Iraq had at least one gynecological problem needing treatment during their deployment, with irregular menstrual bleeding being the most common issue.
Most of these types of gynecological conditions are preventable and/or easily treated. In fact, the U.S. military recently introduced a "Women's Health Promotion Program for Austere Environments". This program teaches military women how to best ensure their own health and wellbeing in challenging operational environments. This training is new but has been met with great support and enthusiasm. Helping all servicewomen expand their health literacy and their ability to keep their own bodies healthy and operational just makes sense.
Menstrual regulation is an important gap area in health knowledge for many service members and their care providers. Menstrual control and/or suppression options should be part of standard discussions at every pre-deployment medical review. A U.S. study found that 86% of servicewomen surveyed wanted the ability to suppress menstruation during field training and deployment, but only 7% said they had ever been provided the knowledge or opportunity to do so. Another U.S. study found that 13% of deployed U.S. women had lost operational duty days to address menstrual challenges. This data demonstrates that all primary health care providers, military, or civilian con- tractor, of deployable uniformed women should be as conversant on menstrual control and suppression options as any other operational medical readiness requirement. If they aren't, then lack of sex-specific medical care may well be a barrier to Canadian women's full and equal participation on UN missions. Canada is committed to leading by example with a feminist foreign policy agenda.
The Canadian Forces Health Services (CFHS) can support this policy by engaging dedicated Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA+) advisors and planners with medical expertise to review the policies and standards of care for women in the military, particularly on deployment, and ensure operational training and currency requirements on women's health for all its health care providers. The DCAF study may identify other barriers to Canadian women's participation in deployments, but CFHS should lead the way in already fully addressing this known barrier now.
Military Woman invites respectful questions and comments on all issues relating to women in the military. Please address comments to: Military Woman, c/o letters@espritdecorps.ca or by mail to #204-1066 Somerset St. W., Ottawa, Ontario K1Y 4T3.
Update:
2022. “Elsie Initiative Barrier Assessment - Results of the Measuring Opportunities for Women in Peace Operations Assessment for the Canadian Armed Force” is published.
2023. CAF stands up the “Directorate of Women’s and Diversity Health” and works closely together with the US military to develop topics, including reproductive health.
2024. CAF’s “Military Women’s Research Plan” is published. It names musculoskeletal injuries, reproductive health, pelvic floor health and mental health as research priorities.
