“There are not all negative stories,” Hoit said at the 2014 Medill National Security Journalism Initiative Conference on Thursday. “Female veterans have other parts of their life. They are just not balanced representations. It’s not sexy, that’s why the media doesn’t write about it.”

Hoit joined the U.S. Army Reserve in 2001 when she was 17. After three years she was deployed to Balad, Iraq, where she served as a military journalist for a year.

“Not all of the female veterans have experienced military sexual trauma, homelessness or unemployment,” Hoit said, but too often those issues are highlighted in news stories at the expense of other issues important to women, like getting more education, taking care of their families or dealing with civilian life.

From Hoit’s perspective, many female veterans are mothers or young girls going to college after coming back from war, trying to integrate into society and disassociate with military life.

“It [time in the service] was hugely different than coming home,” Hoit said. Although she got a good job, she felt disconnected. “I was just a 21-year-old chick,” she said, “I lost that identity, which was what a lot of people are struggling with as well.”

It took Hoit almost eight years to rebuild her personal and professional connections after she left the military. “Getting on the plane, going oversees and being dropped somewhere is not hard when you don’t know what you are expecting,” Hoit said, but coming back to “the place you are supposed to be most recognizable but you were not” is hard.

Hoit serves as the director of communications at Got Your 6, a cultural impact campaign designed to help close the military-civilian divide.

Partnered with 32 national veteran organizations and a Hollywood production crew, the communication team of Got Your 6 aims to rebuild the “victim” perception of female veterans in pop culture.

The yearly average rate for “Gulf War Era II” veterans dropped to 9% from 9.9% the year before. The rate for all veterans fell to 6.6% from 7% and for non-veterans, to 7.2% from 7.9%.

The gap between non-veterans and Gulf War II veterans peaked at 39% in 2011 and has been 25% for two years now.

Monthly data showed a significant drop for Gulf War II veterans in December, to 7.3% from 9.9%, but month-to-month data is not necessarily a good indicator of a trend. Quarterly and annual data, given the sample size of unemployed veterans, is more reliable. The rate for all veterans fell as well in December to 5.5% from 6.7% — the first drop below 6% since 2008.

SOURCE: Data extracted from Bureau of Labor Statistics

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• View and download monthly data for all veteran types and non-veterans, from mid-2006 through 2013.
  

The rate for all veterans dropped slightly to 6.2%, as did the rate for non-veterans overall (7.2%).

Some 226,000 Post-9/11 veterans were unemployed — up 36% in a month. For women, the rise was more dramatic; 43,000 without work was 60% higher than July.

“More than a single report, we know that too many post-9/11 veterans continue to struggle to find employment. We have made progress as a nation, but there is more we must do to support veterans’ transition from combat to career,” Derek Bennett of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America said in a release.

The chart below shows the unemployment trends since 2008.

• Analyze and download data that National Security Zone compiles from Bureau of Labor Statistics and other sources.
• Extract your own veteran-related unemployment data from the BLS.
• Archive of monthly data press releases, including all tables.

→ Story:Post-9/11 veterans unemployment dips, but still 25% higher than non-veterans

SOURCE: National Security Zone charts with data extracted from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Resources

• Our latest stories on unemployment among veterans, particularly the 9/11-era cohort.
• Analyze and download data that National Security Zone compiles from Bureau of Labor Statistics and other sources.
• Extract your own veteran-related unemployment datafrom the BLS.
• Archive of monthly data press releases, including all tables.