In post-duty life, women face a different host of challenges than their male counterparts. One initiative, Operation Reinvent, is offering a new kind of support.
This is Marbelyn Cepeda, a Marine veteran who served in Afghanistan and is transitioning back to civilian life.
Cepeda, pictured above with her nephew, joined the Marines in 2009 after her first year of college. She said she chose the Marines because her sister had been in the army and she wanted to challenge herself to do something even tougher. In 2012 Cepeda was deployed to Afghanistan and returned to the United States in February 2013.
Photo Courtesy of Marbelyn Cepeda
While she was serving her country, Cepeda said she felt like she needed to suppress her femininity.
"Men [in the military] are more free to be themselves. Women, not so much," Cepeda told BuzzFeed Life. "I felt like I had to be or act stronger than I actually am. I always had to be on point. There was always attention on me, especially because I was one of few females in my unit," she said. Cepeda explained that women are allowed to wear certain kinds of makeup, so long as it looks natural, but she never saw much point in wearing makeup while she was active in the Marines because it could potentially draw negative attention.
Photo by Scott Olson / Via Getty Images
Via Getty Images
Julie Lewit-Nirenberg, founder of Operation Reinvent, an organization that helps female veterans transition back into civilian life with mentoring and career counseling, told BuzzFeed Life that the feelings Cepeda expressed are common. Women make up about 7.11% of the Marines and 15.7% of the armed forces, but enlisting in the military means shifting the focus away from every societal norm of what it means to express confidence as a woman. Boot camp, training, and duty are meant to standardize every person in uniform. But after they've finished their tour of duty, Lewit-Nirenberg said women can be left feeling like the identity they cultivated in the military doesn't have a place once they leave.
