A Critical Review of Barriers to United States Military Spouse Education and Employment

Abstract

In the United States, there are over one million military spouses. Frequent geographical relocations, the psychological stress and anxiety associated with spousal deployments, and supporting their children as the only parent while their active duty spouse is away leave military spouses disproportionately accountable for all family obligations. Ultimately, these inequities create barriers for military spouses and their employment and educational pursuits. Despite similarities in lifestyle to active duty service members, military spouses are not categorized as an at-risk population and have not been studied in depth. This chapter utilized the source, survey, synthesize method to address the literature gap surrounding the barriers to military spouse education and employment. Findings from the existing literature were synthesized to present the key themes for studies that investigated the military culture, barriers to military spouses' pursuits of higher education, employment, and career advancement and earnings.