The Military Spouse Divide: The Military Husband
As a military spouse, have you ever felt out of your element? Remember the time you walked onto your base as a spouse? Remember the feeling you had walking into your first “family readiness” meeting? Or, how about your first military ball? Standing proudly next to your spouse in his or her full regalia. Was it just me or did you feel completely out of place in almost all of these events the first time, maybe even second time around?
Now, imagine you only look like 8% of the population in these situations. That’s what male military spouses have to deal with on a daily basis because, according to a recent study by Hiring Our Heroes in 2017, 92% of the military spouse population is female.
Now, these numbers might feel daunting for some. And, beyond the already nerve-wracking experience of becoming part of a new community, adding minority status might make many husbands feel isolated. But, the truth is this number could be completely flipped upside down with military husbands making up 92% of the military spouse population and the same issues of underemployment and unemployment would exist! And, that’s why TPS is motivated to help all genders succeed at their careers!
The fact is that we are all plagued with the same career development issues. So, whether you’re a man or woman, we’ve all been through the same struggles in developing and maintaining our careers.
How equal are we with our career struggles? Ryan Pau, a fellow TPS member, and I are both military spouses, veterans (although I’m sure we have differing opinions on which branch is best), and attorneys. We both married active duty military members and have attempted to have full professional careers ourselves. We both have children, and struggle with the same problems with deployments and child care issues. In fact, when I asked Ryan what challenges he has as a military spouse, his response was eerily similar to my own, “the uncertainty, the inability to plan ahead, the toll on my professional goals, military child care availability…you know, the usual.”
What’s telling in Ryan’s response is the last part… “you know, the usual.” Because the reality is that no matter whether male or female, we deal with these same struggles. And, what TPS hopes to instill in the military spouse community is an inclusion for all genders and a focus on empowering military spouses everywhere to focus on their careers.
What do I hope this article does for a military husband out there considering becoming a part of TPS? The desire to join us! We can only strive to make the military spouse career environment better if we are representative of ALL of us. So, step out of your comfort zone. Throw away the worry of that “first” time experience and join us! We WANT YOU!
Want to learn more about TPS? Follow us HERE!
