Barriers and facilitators to successful transition to civilian life for ex-servicewomen: The perspective of service providers and policymakers

Abstract: The role of women in the UK Armed Forces has changed considerably in the last decade. With the aim to increase the number of women serving in the military, research must consider the impact of both service and transition into civilian life on the health and well-being of service and exservicewomen (female veterans). This paper adds to the field by providing the perspective of service providers supporting exservice personnel with their mental health, employment, housing, and other needs in addition to those working in policy affecting ex-servicewomen. This study aimed to explore their understanding of what constitutes a successful transition into civilian life, the barriers and facilitators to achieving this, and how transition might be impacted by the gender of the individual transitioning. Interviews and roundtable discussions were held with stakeholders (n = 28) and analysed using framework analysis. Four overarching themes were developed: 'Successful transition is individual and all-encompassing', 'The conflicting identities of servicewomen', 'Sexism: women don't belong in service' and 'The needs of servicewomen'. The first theme describes how the process and result of successful transition is individual to each ex-servicewoman, whilst the remaining themes outline common challenges faced by ex-servicewomen in this journey. There was no singular definition of 'successful transition', but stakeholders described barriers to a successful transition. They identified prominent gender-specific barriers rooted in misogyny and inequality during military service that permeated into civilian life and impacted support use and workplace experiences. Ex-servicewomen were often required to juggle multiple responsibilities, mother and partner, and identities, women and warrior, simultaneously. Policies should look to address elements of military culture that may reinforce gender inequality and ensure veteran services are inclusive, as stakeholders identified that these were factors that negatively affected military to civilian transition for women and could cause poor outcomes. Whilst in-service and veteran-focused interventions are needed, entrenched sexism in the general society should not be ignored.

Read the full article
Report a problem with this article

Related articles

  • More for Policy & Practice

    Armed Forces Covenant toolkit: Updated edition (2025)

    Abstract: One of the key achievements of Forces in Mind Trust’s (FiMT) Our Community - Our Covenant series of reports, beginning in 2016, has been to establish a toolkit for local authorities to help them develop support for their local Armed Forces Community (AFC). The 2016 report launched the idea of a “core infrastructure”, supported by self-assessment questions and some wider tips. Formal research and informal engagement show that the toolkit still provides an important contribution to successful local delivery of Covenant pledges and wider AFC support. It’s a baseline in the face of ever-present funding stresses and a point of reference when there are changes in member and officer responsibilities. This means it is important that the toolkit remains up to date. It was last reviewed in 2022 and presented as an Annex to FiMT’s research report A Decade of the Covenant. Since then, there has been further research into local support for the Armed Forces Community for the next iteration of the Our Community - Our Covenant series. This updated toolkit reflects these recent findings about local practice as well as developments following the introduction in the Armed Forces Act 2021 of the duty of due regard to the principles of the Covenant in the focus areas of housing, education and healthcare. As with the original document, the toolkit remains targeted at local authorities. It covers their own direct role in supporting the local AFC, but also the crucial activity of convening local partnerships and so enabling effective local collaborative action. The key changes to the core infrastructure and self-assessment cover: (1) More emphasis on embedding AFC support into the mainstream of local authority work. (2) An extended top tips section with more advice based on recent research. (3) We have dropped the descriptive scenarios of challenges that members of the AFC face. These have now been overtaken by analytical scenarios included in the freely available national training material and in the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) Covenant Legal Duty toolkit, which helps to explain the legal duty aspect of the Covenant. (4) Some additional material about the individual roles, collaboration, communication and vision and commitment elements of the core infrastructure. This toolkit update is being made in spring 2025 at a time when further change in the Covenant environment is likely, with potential extension of the Covenant duty and expected re-organisation in English local government and creation of new combined or strategic authorities. Additional modules could be added to the toolkit to reflect these ongoing policy developments.

    Education / Training Housing Peer reviewed