Pop-Up Photo Exhibit Shines Spotlight on Oregon Women Veterans

By Damien Weaver, Veterans News Magazine

There are more than 28,000 women veterans in Oregon — a number that has risen steadily over the past three decades — representing almost one-tenth of Oregon’s veteran population. And yet, as Air Force veteran Dayle Shulda Hite and Navy veteran Eileen Garlington describe it, the term “veteran” is still coded as male in the popular imagination.

Indeed, the general public often, though erroneously, conflates the term “veteran” with “combat veteran,” which, given the only-recently lifted policy barring women from combat roles, further connotes military service as a masculine enterprise.

This leaves many women veterans feeling alienated, unrecognized, and less likely to utilize the veteran benefits to which they are entitled. As Liz Estabrooks, ODVA’s Women Veterans Coordinator, put it, “Women veterans are too often invisible, overlooked, without a voice.”

One effort to address this issue has resulted in the I Am Not Invisible (IANI) campaign, an ongoing traveling exhibit featuring the portraits and stories of 22 Oregon women military veterans from across multiple generations and five branches of the armed forces.

The project, which is a joint effort of the ODVA and Portland State University’s Veterans Resource Center, is intended to shine a spotlight on women veterans, whose contributions, experiences and needs are too often ignored or overlooked socially, politically and legally.

“We commissioned this project last year as a result of hearing consistent concerns from women veterans, here at PSU and across the state,” said PSU Veterans Resource Center Director Felita Singleton. “Our goal is to increase awareness and dialogue about women veterans and to enhance the public’s view of the myriad experiences — both good and bad — of women who have served in the military, including the collective inequities that abound for them as veterans.”

Some of those experiences are reflected in the personal history of Maria Carolina González-Prats, a U.S. Army veteran who is among those featured in the IANI exhibit. She, like many veterans, initially struggled to transition from military to civilian life, first in navigating corporate culture and the politics of senior management, and then later in coping with the effects of post-traumatic stress while pursuing a graduate degree.

Maria Carolina Gonzalez-Prats is a U.S. Army veteran and one of the subjects of the new campaign, I Am Not Invisible

Photo by Tyler Francke

Despite these challenges, González-Prats said she was heartened by the camaraderie and guidance she received from other veterans she encountered after leaving the service, which contrasted sharply with the enmity that characterized so many of her active duty relationships.

Speaking of her supervisor at her first post-service job, a Marine Corps Reserve officer who was later deployed overseas, González- Prats said, “He was the type of leader that, if I had served under him while in the military, I would have never gotten out.”

It was a series of negative incidents, frequently tinged with gender bias and, at times, explicit gendered aggression, that ultimately contributed to her decision against making the Army a career.

She later recalled speaking with a counselor at a VA Vet Center — a Vietnam combat veteran whom González-Prats could not help but feel “silly complaining to” — whose acceptance and validation of her feelings took her by surprise.

She said she had always felt her experiences were less traumatic than combat (and thus, less worthy of attention), but the VA counselor told her, “It’s not worse, it’s different. There’s nothing normal about what happened to you, and it’s not O.K.”

Since then, González-Prats has gradually come to embrace her identity, not just as a veteran, but as an advocate for other veterans. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in social work at PSU, focusing her research on ways to improve the military’s response to persistent gender inequality, sexual harassment and sexual assault among service members.

Victoria Huckaby, a U.S. Navy veteran and another of those featured in the IANI campaign, echoed González-Prats’ sentiments when she expressed the strong sense of “emotional gratification” that accompanies being a member of the veteran community.

“To be able to meet other veterans and hear their stories, struggles, and great advice,” Huckaby said, “has helped me feel pride, joy, and (reassurance) that I’m not alone. We are all connected through a greater purpose.”

It is precisely this sense of belonging and visibility that the IANI campaign seeks to promote in the public consciousness, said Estabrooks, herself a U.S. Army veteran.

“When we take a moment to acknowledge these narratives, we begin to peel away the cloak of invisibility that is heavy with years of words and actions that tell us (women veterans) that we are not seen,” she said. “And when we ask you to think ‘woman’ when you think ‘veteran,’ it is not because we seek a ‘special’ place, but an equal place beside our brothers, a place where our contributions are also acknowledged.”

To learn more about the IANI exhibit, or request a display in your community, visit www.iani.oregondva.com.