Thank you very much for that question.
In our scoping review, we found that women veterans earn less than their male counterparts post-release. I remember General Natynczyk speaking about purpose. If you don't know what you're going to do when you leave the Canadian Forces, it is very difficult to move forward, and that contributes to a sense of a lack of identity. It affects your self-confidence.
I could share a bit of my personal experience. I left the Canadian Forces after 37 years. I was a senior officer at the staff college. On the day I left, on one side of the door I was the deputy commandant of the staff college and in charge of all the people and money that ran that institution. In the space of one heartbeat, I walked through the door and I was an old lady with a box.
It's profound, and I know it's not just the military. In many other professions, people go through the same thing, but I think if we could do transition.... I know the Canadian Forces is working hard to change the way people go through that transition and to help people understand that they need to have a purpose. When you get up in the morning the very next day or maybe a week later, what are you going to do with the rest of your life? That is key to mental health, to moving forward and to financial security. All of those things are interrelated, and to me purpose is huge.