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According to LinkedIn’s Woman Veteran Opportunity Report, there are currently 2 million women veterans in the workforce, with 30,000 more leaving the military every year. So, as we celebrate Women’s History Month, we decided to take a moment to advocate for why higher education should hire more women veterans.
Warning: There are generalizations ahead. In this age of intersectionality, it’s unfair and impossible to stereotype women veterans into a single box. But there are some excellent reasons why universities should be looking for women veterans to help them meet their recruitment, retention, and DEI goals.
Why should universities hire more female veterans?
Like the rest of the public and private sectors, universities want to hire candidates who check all the boxes. They want staff and faculty to be both:
- Smart AND sensitive
- Enthusiastic AND practical
- Flexible/creative AND able to follow a process
- Demonstrate leadership AND be a team player
Universities can stop searching for unicorns and start hiring female veterans. It turns out female veterans are all of these things, plus they consistently demonstrate strong character. So, what else do colleges need to know before they start seriously committing to hiring more of these women?
Here are some reasons universities should hire more female veterans.
We have a natural bias towards service.
Pledging years of your life to serve your country isn’t a decision anyone takes lightly. However, those of us who have served know what commitment looks like, and we are driven to give back to the world (whether globally or in our local communities) at higher levels than civilians.
This bias towards services also benefits campuses since we can act as a stabilizing force on campus through reduced turnover. According to LinkedIn, women veterans remain at their first companies 16 percent longer than women nonveterans.
We rise to the challenge.
All veterans have been forged in a crucible of hard training, resilience, and commitment that military service requires. But female veterans are used to having to do more to prove our worth. Many women veterans face the same challenges and biases in the workplace that our non-military sisters do — but often in a hyper-masculine environment.
And we’re well-educated as well. Forty-one percent of female veterans have received a bachelor’s degree or higher, and we study IT, engineering, and computer science at higher rates than our nonveteran woman counterparts.
One telling statistic: According to the Journal of Financial Economics, CEOs of private sector firms with military experience outperform nonveteran CEOs during economic downturns and are more likely to engage in ethical behavior. Let’s bring some of that integrity and commitment to college campuses, shall we?
We’re a diverse, inclusive group.
The U.S. military is the most diverse organization in the United States, with more women of color joining every year. Of the more than 30,000 women who leave the military every year, 34 percent are women of color, with 20 percent of women service members identifying as Black.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, among Army recruits, the portion of Black women is significantly higher than in the civilian labor force. And in all the services, minority representation is higher among female recruits than male recruits.
We start interesting conversations.
War stories are good stories. Female veterans show there are many different paths to meaning, purpose, and belonging that don’t include working in the private or nonprofit sectors. Every branch has its unique culture, every school and deployment has its own lessons that we can bring to the campus and the classroom.
Our experiences as veterans matter, and the stories we have to tell are becoming rarer and rarer on college campuses. We cannot solve our communities’ biggest problems without having a wide variety of perspectives, and female vets bring some of the most unique perspectives we have as Americans.
We’re experts in peer support.
When you put women vets together in a room, magic happens. A fabulous Tina Fey quote always comes to mind when I work with female veterans when a job needs to be done. We know what it’s like to struggle, and we’re used to multitasking to take care of work, our families, and our education, without drama. Women veterans share the mentality of “leave no (wo)man left behind.” Whatever our differences, we show up for each other, no matter what.
We’re paving the way for future generations.
More women than ever are joining the military. Given that female veterans take advantage of their GI Bill® and other educational benefits more than their male counterparts, we need to have more people who share their experiences working on college campuses.
It’s the right thing to do.
Women veterans face 18 percent higher underemployment than their female civilian counterparts and 22 percent higher underemployment than their male veteran counterparts. They also face significant leadership hurdles, as they are 25 percent less likely to be a director and 15 percent less likely to be a vice president than their civilian female peers. Hiring women veterans and giving them a chance to shine is absolutely the right thing to do.
Higher education has a chance to lead the world when it comes to providing the employment and leadership opportunities that women veterans have earned through their service to their country. Given all the reasons mentioned above, it’s a no-brainer that more colleges should hire these incredible women to help develop students and lead their institutions into the future.
Disclaimer: HigherEdMilitary encourages free discourse and expression of issues while striving for accurate presentation to our audience. A guest opinion serves as an avenue to address and explore important topics, for authors to impart their expertise to our higher education audience and to challenge readers to consider points of view that could be outside of their comfort zone. The viewpoints, beliefs, or opinions expressed in the above piece are those of the author(s) and don’t imply endorsement by HigherEdMilitary.
