Commissioner LTC Erica Courtney on the importance of supporting California’s women veterans

by Dorsey Griffith

Army Lieutenant Colonel Erica Courtney understands the challenges veterans face after leaving military service. After 23 years in the Army, first as a helicopter pilot flying cavalry missions and later as a senior-level civil affairs officer, she remembers wondering what to do with her life.

“I came from a place of camaraderie, where we were all working for the same purpose, to the outside world in which people look at women veterans as if we are not warriors,” she says.

Women who have served and led, she said, often feel isolated and become disconnected because non-veterans can’t relate to their experiences. That disconnect can lead to crippling problems.

Today, as an Army reservist, entrepreneur and a Commissioner on the California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls [CCSWG], Courtney aims to better understand the challenges women veterans face and remove barriers preventing them from transitioning successfully to civilian life.

California, like most states, only captures about 10%-20% of the female veteran population making it hard to inform them of issues and benefits available. Currently, California Department of Veterans (CalVet) has approximately 150,000 women veterans registered in their systems leaving hundreds of thousands void of outreach efforts and their percentage of the veteran population is expected to grow. Women veterans suffer from higher rates of suicide, homelessness, PTSD, depression, divorce, and unemployment over their male veteran counterparts, according to Courtney.

Courtney believes the first three years of a veteran’s transition are crucial to her success and advocates for creating programs specifically for female veterans. These would cover money management, housing, benefits assistance, rehabilitation—including physical and mental health services—as well as job training, education and entrepreneurship.

“If we can provide women veterans a livelihood, and they go on to hire other veterans, we alleviate a lot of the issues. It gives them purpose,” she says.

“If we can provide women veterans a livelihood, and they go on to hire other veterans, we alleviate a lot of the issues they are having. It gives them purpose.”

Erica Courtney, Commissioner, California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls

Since 2022, the Commission distributed a total of $13.9 million from the state legislature over two fiscal year to support women’s recovery from the pandemic with grants for programs supporting women, some of which went to women veterans, including the California Women Veterans Survey. Courtney says over half of women who serve do not self identify as veterans due to reasons male veterans do not encounter.

CalVet recently completed the latest survey, said CalVet Secretary Lindsey Sin. Results have not yet been published, but Sin said they received more than 2,700 responses, including from many women who had not previously responded.

A U.S. Navy veteran who previously ran CalVet’s Women Veterans Division, Sin says CalVet is working to ensure smoother transitions from military life for women veterans, helping them access benefits, including filing disability claims. She said the VA has vastly improved its track record on awarding claims, including, for example, those related to military sexual trauma.

CalVet is also investing over the $1 billion in Proposition 1 funds approved by voters in March to develop supportive housing for veterans, as well as building capacity for mental health appointments through its Veterans Health Initiative. Courtney said she hopes to see a portion of housing set aside solely for women veterans and their children.

“The VA has markedly improved over the last decade but still struggles with continuity of appointments,” Sin says. “We want to add value to that, finding providers who are culturally competent and provide mental health appointments.”

“It is important to dispel false narratives and what we continue to see in politics and in the media is the idea that standards are different for women, therefore, they are seen as ‘less than’,” Courtney says. “This is inherently untrue as many women who compete for a combat arms role or specialized training such as ranger school, have to endure the same physical and mental standards as their male counterparts.”

In California, Courtney and Sin acknowledged state budget constraints and the importance of sustained investment in initiatives to ease women veterans’ transitions into life after military service.

Courtney and Sin both champion investment in women veterans research, outreach, and programs to help with transition.

“We have an opportunity to uplift the experience of women in the military and it has to be followed up with action,” Sin says.

For more information on the California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls visit https://women.ca.gov/