This year, Military Spouse Appreciation Day will be on Friday, May 7th. Typically on the Friday before Mother’s day, it honors the sacrifices and contributions of military partners. Military families often face many different challenges compared to non-military families, with the average military family separated by deployment for between 2-3 years over the last decade.
Military families have to constantly deal with the cycle of deployment and integration. Military families also suffer higher rates of suicide, divorce, child neglect, and DUIs. Military spouse unemployment remains at a staggering 26%.
Traditionally, military spouses were expected to leave jobs in order to follow their military partners across state and international boundaries. Spouses may even be expected to volunteer and help younger military families. This culture is deeply ingrained in many military families, as spouses frequently abandon career aspirations to support their ever changing communities.
However, for many modern military families, military spouses are choosing to work more. Some families may even choose to voluntarily separate in order to preserve both spouses' careers. Military spouses have learned to be more independent, sociable, and adaptable. Currently, 85% of military spouses have college degrees or are working on one, and they volunteer at a rate 3x more than the national average.
According to a 2009 survey on Military Family Lifestyle, the top concerns of military families were military pay and benefits, effect of deployment on kids, and moral and emotional support for families of deployed service members. These issues make sense in the context of the great recession and Middle Eastern wars of that time. However, the survey was conducted again in 2018. It found that the top concerns of military spouses were time away from family, military spouse employment and military spouse education. Evidently, different issues are prioritized now and it seems that the dated concept of military spouse is also changing.
The history and culture of military spouses is a largely undocumented area of study. Historically, the main focus has always been on the structure of a military family, and rarely from the perspective of a military spouse. Flight Talk would like to bring a new perspective to these issues and shed some light on current issues from real military spouses.
Our upcoming mini season about military families will be launching on Friday, June 7th. Follow our Facebook page to stay up to date on upcoming announcements. Check out the podcast on our front page or your favorite podcast platform.
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