Given the manner in which we serve in the Canadian Forces or the RCMP, it's demanding service. As I mentioned in my remarks, the way women were integrated was to bring them in and just treat them like one of the guys. What we understand today is that in doing that, there have been harms. Women suffer greater injury regarding musculoskeletal health, mental health and physical health. The conditions of service affect them differently than they do men.
At Veterans Affairs, the table of disabilities was originally designed for men. For example, for one of the studies we did recently, we published a report on the sex-based bias we found in just one tiny portion of that table of disabilities: the process for evaluating sexual dysfunction. The questionnaire that goes to the doctor, for example, specifically asks, “Is there sexual dysfunction?” if the person sitting in front of the doctor is a man. For women, a similar question is not there. PTSD and psychiatric and mental health issues could have adverse impacts on a woman's sexual health as well, but they are invisible. The table of disabilities was silent on that.
We found this sex-based bias in that one tiny portion of the programs and benefits offered to all veterans and to women veterans. We asked the department to take a close look at everything in the table of disabilities and examine where there might be sex-based bias or things missing.