Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Why Are Suicide Rates Among Female Veterans So High?

Here are some awful statistics. According to the Veterans Administration suicide rates among veterans is significantly higher than rates among non-veterans. Most of those who are committing suicide are veterans of the Vietnam War.

Suicide rates among all veterans is 22% higher than suicide rates among non-veterans. Yet, and here is the most disturbing point, suicide rates among female veterans is 250% higher than among female non-veterans. Obviously, this group does not include very many female Vietnam veterans.

Now, tell me why America’s experiment with a gender neutered military is such a good idea?

3 comments:

Sam L. said...

Women outdoing men, here. Does this make feminists happy?

JPL17 said...

What a startling statistic! The causation chain would be interesting to research. E.g., what percentage of female veteran suicides are attracted to military service due to pre-existing suicidal tendencies; and what percentage are driven by military experience?

Ares Olympus said...

Sam L's assumptions may be wrong unless we compare male and female rates to each other. Given men's suicides are much higher than women, I'm assuming the women here are catching up to the men but maybe they are passing men up. Maybe someone can wade into the data and look?

JPL17's questions are valid - do women "attracted" to military service have characteristics that predispose them to suicide later in life?

There's also the fact that men generally pick more successful suicide methods, so perhaps women who get military training choose more masculine ways of ending their lives?