Women's distrust of VA hard to shed

While movement was advancing, as our sister soldiers became sister veterans from these two wars of choice in greater numbers and enhanced military rolls, the brakes were just placed on that advancement in the last election, especially in the House. How easy is it to say that, Very, those advancements were coming out of the 110th and 111th Congress catching up to what wasn't done as wars were waged and advancing beyond those catch ups!

Female vets bypass the care there, as attitudes and services are slow to catch up.

November 21, 2010 - At the sprawling Minneapolis Veterans Medical Center, the women's care center is tucked away in a corner of the fourth floor, accessible only through hallways filled with men. Until a recent remodeling, the exam rooms faced out into the hallways.

Even advocates for female veterans can find themselves anxious about making a visit. That was the case recently for Trista Matascastillo, one of the founders of the Minnesota Women Veterans Initiative Working Group.

A Navy veteran who joined before her 18th birthday, she recently went to the VA for an exam to determine compensation and pension benefits. While there, she said, she encountered a male OB/Gyn on contract who left the door open and complained about women "crying sexual harassment." Afterward, lost in the labyrinth of hallways, she sat down in a hallway and cried. {read rest}