A voice for women who endure abuse in the military
“It began in college. I had a class called Sex and Gender in Latin America. It was talking about the machismo culture and what women in those countries are going through, not really being protected or having a voice for themselves. I remember reading these books and sitting in class discussions, and I was like, it sounds a lot like the environment in the military.
“A lot of people don’t realize what motherhood in the military is like. We don’t catch a break. When we go to work and we come back, we’re still working at home. We don’t have anybody to pick up the slack. There are a lot of amazing military wives, and I give them kudos. They help get their husbands through that time. But we, on the other hand, are mother and soldier.
“One of my battle buddies went to Afghanistan and almost had her children taken away from her for abandonment because she went to war. So what you’re saying is that a man can go fight for his country and leave his children with his wife. But when it’s the mother … It’s like, where’s the respect and the voice for that person?
“It’s also no secret that there’s a lot of sexual trauma and domestic abuse going on in the military. There is some progress being made. They’re taking measures to try to alleviate it. But it’s still happening way too often.
“I’ve been collecting stories from women soldiers who have been brave enough to share what they’ve been through. My goal is to put them together in a book to provide a better understanding of what’s really going on, and to offer some insight and empathy for women in the military.
“We’re not just dealing with the effects of war. We also have a fight within the fight. We want to trust the men to our left and right. But they’re hurting us, too. I’m not saying that everybody does this. But there’s still an epidemic. It’s just this sad thing.”
— Erica Salazar
Erica served as an intelligence analyst in the Army. She was deployed twice to Afghanistan, once as a soldier and later as a civilian contractor.
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