Using the report, DAV made 27 policy and programmatic recommendations. While the organization realizes that not all 27 recommendations can be fulfilled at once, it has called on Congress to give VA officials a year to implement the most important of them, such as the recommendations to staff VA medical facilities with at least one gynecologist, authorize child-care services for veterans, and establish gender-sensitive mental health programs.
About 200,000 women are expected to leave the military in the coming four or five years as the country's armed forces downsize. By 2020, 11 percent of all veterans will likely be female. The VA has a responsibility to meet the needs of these women.