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Family CenterRAND Institute Study Reveals Military Spouses Left Behind by Civilian CounterpartsStay Updated!Build your knowledge of workplace trends, potential career options and career While researching employment of military spouses, RAND National Defense Research Institute found that civilians who shared all of the same characteristics as military spouses—from education level to frequency of moves—had better employment opportunities and outcomes than their military equivalent. What the study suggests is that not any one factor makes for a less-effectively-employed military spouse, but rather that military-specific factors such as partner absence and lack of reliability and employer bias, aggravate conditions shared by civilian spouses. While daycare issues and local labor market conditions affected all job-seekers equally in each specific location, the military spouse often faces isolation from extended family members who fill the childcare gaps in other homes. In addition, the frequent absence of the service member made that partner an unreliable source for child care or other assistance. The study emphasizes the fact that spouses of military personnel are doing more with fewer resources, a truth that should come as no surprise to the many military spouses who run a household in this country, employed or otherwise. Furthermore, the RAND study acknowledged that military spouses were most often themselves aware of the negative impact the military had on their own career or education. The RAND Institute recommendations for the Department of Defense break down into two major parts:
There’s no reason, however, that military spouses have to wait for action by the Defense Department. Fostering relationships with other military spouses, seeking alternative child-care arrangements, and proactively pursuing education opportunities are ways that a military spouse can mimic the RAND recommendations on their own. Doing so would likely mitigate some of the sacrifices military families make in order to serve their country. The assistance that Armed Forces Connection provides to service members and their families, for instance, can easily help position the resume of a military spouse so that her unique assets are actually viewed as such by an employer. Other resources that help her find support for her family can decrease the pressure that holds her back. There are organizations that, at no charge to military personnel and their families, will help address the gaps discovered by the RAND Institute study, but service men and women need to be made aware of them in order to begin taking advantage of those services. |
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