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Unemployment Rate For Veterans Is Improving – Just Not For Recent Women Vets

Ron Doke
/
Flickr

In recent years, corporate America has made a big push to hire veterans that seems to be paying off. Statistics show that veterans have a lower unemployment rate now than the overall population.

But that’s not the case for women veterans who have served since 9/11. Their unemployment rate of 11.2 percent is almost double the national rate of 5.8 percent. For men who have served since 9/11, the unemployment rate is 6.2 percent.

But when you start to try to figure out why women who served in the past decade or so are lagging in the job market, it quickly becomes apparent there are no easy answers.

Job Fair

At a recent job fair in Marysville, a young woman named Misty Ryan stood off to the side, waiting for the line to die down before she checks in.

Ryan is slender with a pierced nose and long, dark blond hair pulled back. She left the Army in 2008 and was unemployed for a while. Then she had a daughter and stayed home full-time with her.

Now she’s trying to find a job, and has been looking for three months.

“I’ve filled out applications pretty much anywhere because right now, it’s just about getting a job and getting my foot in somewhere. But it’s kind of been discouraging because I haven’t gotten any callbacks yet,” she said.

'Maybe I Should Start Saying That'

Ryan can list all of the reasons why being a veteran is an asset.

Credit Ashley Gross / KPLU
/
KPLU
Army veteran Misty Ryan stopped by a booth at a Marysville job fair to find out about jobs driving school buses.

“You’re disciplined, you’re a self-starter, you pay attention to detail,” she said.

But she downplays her own service. Ryan says that’s because she was medically discharged after 16 months because of back problems.

“That’s not the first thing that comes to mind — 'Oh, I’m a veteran,’” she said. “I don’t ever say that, so maybe I should start saying that.”

Women selling themselves short is a familiar story. But Garry Augustine of the group Disabled American Veterans says another problem is that people’s perceptions have not kept pace with reality.

“Many in our society still look at women as being not true veterans,” he said.

Women used to serve in the background. But they’ve been in very dangerous situations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Still, Augustine says somehow when they come home, people fail to recognize that.

“There are stories of women veterans going into VA hospitals and asking for treatment and they’re asked, 'Where’s your husband?”' he said.

Few Answers

Still, there’s not a lot of research available on why women vets are having a harder time finding jobs.

Meredith Kleykamp is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Maryland and one of the people trying to get to the bottom of this.

“I really wish, for veterans and for social science, that I had a great narrative to say here’s what’s going on,” Kleykamp said.

Kleykamp discovered that there doesn’t seem to be any bias against women veterans in the beginning of the hiring process. She sent out fictitious resumes from women veterans and non-veterans, and found that employers showed more interest in veterans.

“At the level of looking at someone’s resume for an entry-level job, female veterans are preferred,” she said.

So then why aren’t they getting the jobs?

Theories

Kleykamp can only speculate. A large proportion of women vets are African-American so maybe there’s racial discrimination. Women vets have more child care responsibilities than male vets so that could make it hard for them to get hired. She’s conducting interviews with recent vets and hopes to have more data soon.

Women veterans have their own theories as well.

Heather Slater is a single mom who served in the Navy for four years until 2009. She came to the job fair in Marysville to explore other opportunities, even though she now has a job.  

Slater was unemployed for two years before finding her current position. She thinks one reason why women vets struggle to find work is that the male culture of the military can leave them doubting themselves.

Feeling 'Beat Up'

“Females can come out of the military with lower self esteem because of how beat up they were during the service, and I think that the mental health part is lacking,” she said. “I think it should be part of the transition assistance programs. They talk about resume writing and all of that, but they don’t really go into the mental health aspect.”

Slater won’t say what made her feel beaten down, but she says she’s in therapy now for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Still, she says she doesn’t regret serving. The military paid for her to go to college, and being a veteran helped her land her current job. She says with time and therapy, she's come to feel more and more proud of her time in the Navy.

In July 2017, Ashley Gross became KNKX's youth and education reporter after years of covering the business and labor beat. She joined the station in May 2012 and previously worked five years at WBEZ in Chicago, where she reported on business and the economy. Her work telling the human side of the mortgage crisis garnered awards from the Illinois Associated Press and the Chicago Headline Club. She's also reported for the Alaska Public Radio Network in Anchorage and for Bloomberg News in San Francisco.