The Military Spouse Employment Journey:
From Where Advocacy Has Come and Where It Needs To Go
Military spouses have a long history of being painted as homely backdrops to men being shipped off to wars. Imagine a nuclear family complete with a blond-haired, stick-figure wife holding a tray of fresh-baked cookies for her two point five children while smooching a grinning, uniformed husband. Does she have feelings, or her own hopes and aspirations beyond the home? Not in that picture. They are simply dependents. That's where the stereotype has always been wrong, though, and especially for today's career-minded military spouse. Women have been calling for equality since the birth of the United States, and slowly obtaining it, but until 2008, military spouses have not seen any legislative support for their own career goals. Because the mid-1900s housewife stereotype has always been misleading, the nation must alter its mindset. It's time to recognize military spouses as real working people with a variety of backgrounds with their own career trajectories, and make lasting legal changes to support them.
To get a full grasp of the military spouse employment journey, it's important to look at key historical dates in the United States that shaped society and especially the military spouse. In fact, one of the first key moments is in women's equality: The First Women's Rights Convention in 1848. Upwards of 300 women and men attended the signing of the Declaration of Sentiments, which called for an end to discrimination of women.1 Without women gaining equal rights to owning land, voting, working, and identic pay, America would no doubt be very different, as would the current-day military spouse. But until the advent of World War II, the majority of military men were unmarried. Military spouses did not have to be considered as a key factor in the wellbeing of servicemembers, because they were almost nonexistent. That would quickly change, though. As Emily Yellin of the New York Times noted, “In 1942 alone, 1.8 million weddings took place, up 83 percent from 10 years before. And two-thirds of those brides were marrying men newly enlisted in the military.”2 Even looking at U.S. Census Bureau marriage trends from 1950 to 1980 shows an exponential boom in marriages.3 Seemingly overnight, the shape of the military changed. The major growth in military marriages combined with the Civil Rights Movement formed the new military spouse avatar—a working woman, and now man thanks to the legal recognition of female soldiers—yet they remained unnoticed for many more years.4
It wasn't until 208 years after the birth of the United States, and 64 years after most women achieved the legal right to vote,5 that military spouses finally received a formal recognition of their existence. On April 17, 1984, President Ronald Reagan released Proclamation 5184 that thenceforth dedicated May 24th as “Military Spouse Day.”6 The dedication urges the country to recognize “the profound importance of spouse commitment to the readiness and well-being of service members.” The day is still widely celebrated within the military community and by major news outlets, but the devotion itself doesn't fully recognize spouse needs beyond their role as loving homemakers, despite Reagan's acknowledgement that, “they subordinated their personal and professional aspirations to the greater benefit of the service family.” In reality, the dedication perpetuates the inaccurate military spouse stereotype as simple housewives. In order to systematically shift America's mindset away from that mold, and help them overcome career-blocking hurdles, “Military Spouse Day” needs to undergo a significant makeover to accurately portray them.
In 1988, a Blue Ribbon Panel released the first ever look at who military spouses really are. In fact, it suggested to the Secretary and Chief of Staff of the Air Force that a clear statement on spouse issues be adopted and implemented:
It is Air Force policy that the choice of a spouse to pursue employment, to be a homemaker, to attend school, or to serve as a volunteer in Air Force or local community activities is a private matter and is solely the decision of the individual concerned. No commander, supervisor, or other Air Force official will directly or indirectly impede or otherwise interfere with this decision.7
The Panel's six-month analysis of Air Force military spouses ultimately suggested that spouses should no longer be bound to unpaid duties, like running wives clubs or being bound to organizing their servicemember's off-duty work events (ex. Hail and Farewells). The aforementioned stereotype was beginning to be abolished on paper. What actually came of it, though? Internal policies to compensate spouses have yet to be instituted military-wide, and many spouses are still tied to formal military spouse duties. To this day, the Key Spouse Mentor Guide formally recognizes the importance the program has in the wellbeing of airmen and their families, yet relies on a full volunteer spouse staff to run and operate each program across the world.8 If family programs are so crucial, it remains a conundrum why the Department of Defense does not provide consistent compensation to such important roles across all military branches.9 And while the Air Force might not make it mandatory for any one spouse to run each program, the pressure of the commanding officers to make sure they run smoothly is enough to topple pressure onto spouses. If the programs collapse, the job falls back to the command; otherwise, the support doesn't happen. All military leadership still needs to formally recognize the Blue Ribbon Panel's 1988 recommendation of releasing military spouses from their unofficial duties, and with more than another pat on the back.
In fact, there has been very little, tangible change made to support spouses outside of their homemaker status until 2008. Military spouse advocacy groups began popping up as far back as 1969 starting with the National Military Families Association,10 but the first legislation to speak toward spouses as more than domestics is the Post-9/11 GI Bill. This GI Bill allows servicemembers to transfer unused educational benefits to their spouses or children.11 It was also the first of any kind of passed legislation to recognize spouses as educated beings, despite women exceeding men in college enrollment starting in 1980, and having more advanced degrees than men since 2011.12 Even now, Military Spouse Employment Partnership reports that 84 percent of military spouses have some college experience.13
The same year of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, the Family and Medical Leave Act also recognized spouses as working people with its addition of them to Military Family Leave provisions.14 As of 2008, military spouses were finally eligible for caregiver or exigency leave. Thirty-seven years after President Richard Nixon signed into law Title IX of Education Amendments prohibiting sex discrimination,15 and 23 years after the Supreme Court ruled a workplace can be deemed hostile based on sex discrimination,16 military spouses began to have a voice in the workforce.
From there, a domino effect of career-focused advocacy groups began forming including some of the most influential, like Blue Star Families in 2009, National Military Spouse Network in 2010, and Military Spouse JD Network in 2011. In its inaugural year, BSF launched its “Military Families Lifestyle Survey” that is now able to give the longest and most in-depth look into military spouse challenges, including employment woes, to-date.17 When articles quote military spouses as some of the most under- and unemployed people in the workforce, most often the statistics come from BSF's decade-long look into military spouses and their families. Furthermore, NMSN's White Papers have captured all the data from various military spouse-focused surveys on the market. They not only proposed legislative changes, but have initiated conversations with Congresspeople and military leaders to create palpable changes.18 NMSN is at the forefront of many pieces of military spouse career-focused legislation trying to be pushed into law. Additionally, MSJDN has been pivotal in getting 34 states and one U.S. territory—and growing—to make licensing accommodations for military spouse attorneys.19 The year 2008 marks a shift in understanding how military spouses are career-minded beings, and require legislative backing to match, truly began.
Since 2008, military spouses have begun experiencing smoother processes crossing state lines with professional licenses, have consistency and peace of mind with where they pay income taxes,20 have a slew of organizations aiming to train, mentor, and hire spouses, and have two presidential administrations publicly advocating for working military spouses.21 Also, after a Permanent Change of Station, the DoD branches now offer a monetary reimbursement to spouses transferring professional certifications, and LinkedIn offers a free year of premium access to ease all military spouses in their job hunts.22 Even further, there are now nonprofits, like HillVets LEAD, focusing on helping military spouses pursue careers in political offices and positions to incite the real change necessary to put military families first.23 But yet, there is much left to be done.
The forward momentum career-minded military spouses have experienced over the last decade cannot continue if advocacy efforts do not first try to alter the antiquated perception the nation has about military spouses. If the dated 1950's idea remains prevalent, Congresspeople responsible for creating legislation to support spouses will not be supported by their constituents. Without a stereotype makeover, both large and small businesses will remain hesitant to hire remote-workers or shed their location-based hiring discrimination to give spouses the job opportunities they need. Not to mention, without a change in how spouses are viewed, military leadership will be reluctant to change its deep-rooted traditions if spouses are not monetarily valued for required work. Now is the time to reshape the military spouse stereotype. These people are career-minded men and women who deserve as fair of a chance at an equal work life as everyone else in America. Keeping military spouses employed at the level of their civilian counterparts will not only benefit these individuals, but their servicemembers and ultimately the military and nation.
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Endnotes
1. “Declaration of Sentiments,” National Park Service: https://www.nps.gov/wori/learn/historyculture/declaration-of-sentiments.htm.
2. Yellin, Emily. “Lining Up For Wartime Weddings.” New York Times, 2 Feb. 2017: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/cp/weddings/165-years-of-wedding-announcements/world-war-two-weddings.
3. “Historical Marital Status Tables: MS-1.” U.S. Census Bureau, Nov. 2019: https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/families/marital.html.
4. During Vietnam, the demographics of the military began to change as women were starting to be allowed to legally enlist in branches, like the Air National Guard: https://www.nationalguard.mil/Features/Special-Features/Womens-History-Month/. This began to shift the demographics of military families as well. As of today, the Department of Labor “Military Spouse Fact Sheet” states that 92 percent of military spouses are female: https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/WB/mib/WB-MilSpouse-factsheet.pdf.
5. On the 26 Aug. 1920, the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote throughout the United States, although Mississippi would be the last state to do so on 22 Mar. 1984: https://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/19th-amendment-1.
6. Reagan, Ronald. “Proclamation 5184”: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-98/pdf/STATUTE-98-Pg3583-2.pdf.
7. Freniere, Carole. “Potential Effects of Relocation Decisions on Retention of Air Force Dual-Officer Couples,” Air University, Sept. 1988, https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a201509.pdf.
8. “Airman and Family Readiness Center Key Spouse Program,” U.S. Air Force DCS/Manpower & Personnel: https://www.afpc.af.mil/Portals/70/documents/01_HOME/Airman%20and%20Family/05_Key%20Spouse/KSP%20Mentor%20Guide.pdf?ver=2019-10-08-100155-447.
9. Some military spouses are paid under the “Ombudsman” title, but this is not a military-wide standard, as described in “Future military spouse clubs must change to survive” by Jennifer Barnhill for Military Families Magazine: https://militaryfamilies.com/military-spouses/future-military-spouse-clubs-must-change-to-survive/.
10. National Military Family Association, https://www.militaryfamily.org/about-us/mission/.
11. “Post-9/11 GI Bill,” U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs: https://www.benefits.va.gov/gibill/post911_gibill.asp.
12. See “CPS Historical Time Series Visualizations on School Enrollment,” U.S. Census Bureau: https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/time-series/demo/school-enrollment-cps-historical-time-series.html and “CPS Historical Time Series Visualizations,” U.S. Census Bureau: https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/time-series/demo/cps-historical-time-series.html
13. Military Spouse Employment Partnership Factsheet: https://download.militaryonesource.mil/12038/MOS/Factsheets/SECO/MSEP-Factsheet-Corporate.pdf.
14. “The Employee's Guide to Military Family Leave Under the Family and Medical Leave Act,” U.S. Department of Labor: https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/WHD/legacy/files/fmla_military_guide_english.pdf.
15. “Overview of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972,“ U.S. Department of Justice: https://www.justice.gov/crt/overview-title-ix-education-amendments-1972-20-usc-1681-et-seq.
16. “Enforcement Guidance,” U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission, https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/publications/upload/currentissues.pdf.
17. Blue Star Families' annual Military Families Lifestyle Survey's from 2010-2018: https://bluestarfam.org/survey-more-results/.
18. National Military Spouse Network 2019 White Paper: https://www.nationalmilitaryspousenetwork.org/public/images/NMSN_White_Paper_Military_Spouse_Employment.pdf; and 2020 White Paper: https://www.nationalmilitaryspousenetwork.org/public/NMSN-2020-White-Paper.cfm.
19. Military Spouse JD Network, https://www.msjdn.org.
20. The Military Spouses Residency Relief Act allows military spouses to pay income tax in their home of record state, rather than the state their income was earned: https://download.militaryonesource.mil/12038/MOS/Misc%20Files/MilSpouseResReliefAct.pdf.
21. In 2011, the Obama administration's first and second ladies launched Joining Forces, which encouraged “Americans to rally around service members, veterans, and their families and support them through wellness, education, and employment opportunities”: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/joiningforces/about. In 2018, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 13832 to help increase federal job opportunities for military spouses: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/05/14/2018-10403/enhancing-noncompetitive-civil-service-appointments-of-military-spouses.
22. LinkedIn: https://socialimpact.linkedin.com/programs/veterans/milspouses.
23. Hillvets LEAD: http://www.hillvets.org/lead/.