The managing editor of Military Spouse had the chance to interview the Second Lady of the United States in September. Part of the interview appeared in the November issue of Military Spouse. Read more of what we discussed in the expanded interview below:
THE SPARK THAT IGNITES THE ENERGY NECESSARY TO ELEVATE CONVERSATIONS AND SOLVE PROBLEMS OFTEN COMES FROM AN INFLUENCER. Second Lady of the United States Karen Pence hopes she can be that spark. She is putting her focus on key issues military spouses face, like employment, childcare and professional licensing, to help these problems edge closer to solutions.
Last month, we had the chance to sit down with Mrs. Pence to talk about her recent roundtable discussions with military spouses and her desire to encourage all military spouses during her time in Washington. As the mom of a Marine, daughter of a former airman, and daughter-in-law to a former soldier, Mrs. Pence has roots in the military community. Now she wants to give back to those who give so much.
The day before our interview, Mrs. Pence visited Fort Carson, Colo., to talk about her desire to help the military community. “I feel like it’s such a privilege for me to travel the nation and to meet with military spouses,” said Mrs. Pence during her speech in front of military families. “Spouses have shared with me the challenges that you face, and we know they are many. And we’re focusing on one or two or three that maybe we can do something about in our short term.”
Here is what Mrs. Pence told us when we asked her to tell us more about how she sees change happening, her plans going forward, plus how we can be a part of the solutions.
MILITARY SPOUSE: How did you narrow your focus to wanting to help military spouses?
SECOND LADY: We realized about a year ago that we wanted to start seeing if this was something that we could champion. But we didn’t want to be presumptuous, and say, “We know what military spouses need, we’re going to come to the rescue.” So we started having listening sessions. We went all over the country, every branch, every level, enlisted and all the way up. We visited military spouses overseas, we just asked them. We would ask, “Tell us what your issues are…” Nobody voted for me or elected me, I don’t handle policy, I don’t try to go in and act like I am someone who was elected, but I can raise awareness and I can connect groups. So we just asked the spouses, “What do want us to talk about?”
THE THREE THINGS THAT SURFACED FROM MRS. PENCE’S LISTENING SESSIONS AS CONCERNS WITHIN THE MILITARY SPOUSE COMMUNITY INCLUDED MAINTAINING PROFESSIONAL LICENSURE THROUGH MOVES, ACCESS TO CHILD CARE, AND TIME FOR MILITARY SPOUSES TO GAIN SECURITY CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR EMPLOYMENT.
MS: Are the service chiefs’ spouses going to be a source of information going forward?
SC: We are going to be working with them very diligently. They had a lot of good suggestions yesterday. Little things like if we share information, they can share it on their websites and send it down the line. So we’ll be working with them actively. They were also interested in the licensure issue. They were also interested in the childcare and also interested in the issue with the issue with getting clearance. Security clearance seems to take so long for military spouses. So they are all working on those issues as well, so together, I think we will all be able to make a difference.
They can be reimbursed up to $500 but the University of Minnesota just did a 3 year study and they were paid by DoD, to find out what’s going on with licensure in all 50 states. What we are finding are that there are many legislatures that are passing laws that allow military spouses to have their license with the fee but the problem is that it is not trickling down to each organization’s person that answers the phone. So the military spouse calls in and they tell them, “no, we don’t have anything special for military spouses.” and there they go, it is very frustrating even though we’ve worked very hard to get things passed in the legislature.
MS: So what is next? What are the next steps?
SL: The one thing I know I can do over the next two and a half years is encourage and elevate military spouses. Whether we get anything actually done as far as licensure or childcare, we can at least make people aware of some of the unique challenges military spouses have…
The other thing we want to do is tell the great stories that military spouses have. There are so many amazing stories about what a great experience it is to be a military spouse. Those close friendships. They’re part of a club that nobody else really understands what it’s like and those bonds. You go through something together that none of the rest of us really go through…we want to elevate them. We want to talk about them. We want to encourage them.
But the other thing is that we’re working really hard to make businesses aware that military spouses need employment. They need unique types of employment that can move with them from state to state or country to country when they have to go through a PCS. That is something that we are trying to make businesses aware of… There are a lot of people who just don’t realize that and we find that a lot of businesses are coming alongside. So we’re excited about that…
Nobody voted for me or elected me; I don’t handle policy, I don’t try to go in and act like I am someone who was elected, but I can raise awareness and I can connect groups. So we asked the spouses, what do you want us to talk about?
MS: One of the things that military spouses are concerned about are the things that they have, going away. They appreciate the services they have so… Are people telling you the good stuff?
SL: When we have meetings with high level people at DoD, at the Department of Labor, at the White House, we make them aware that there are some great things going and we don’t want those to go away. So we just want to add on to what we are already doing.
MS: You’ve had a lot of moves and different transitions for your own spouse’s job. Do you find that you can relate a little bit to the experiences of military spouses?
SL: Well, we’ve moved 14 times, so I am a spouse who has had to move because of her husband’s job and try to find employment. And I know that when Mike was governor, I couldn’t keep teaching and I tried nine different places to find a job as First Lady of Indiana and was never hired. So I understand that because of your spouse’s job, it can be difficult to get em- ployment, and it did kind of touch my heart.
When I taught in Virginia, a lot of the teachers and teacher aides that I worked with were military spouses, and I started hearing some of the issues they faced but really some of the amazing experiences as well. So I just thought, you know these spouses are at-home moms, at-home dads, they’re working with three or four kids while their spouse is deployed, it’s very difficult. It’s difficult to be that single parent. Even if you don’t have any children it’s difficult to have your spouse gone for six months, nine months, a year at a time. That’s not easy.
MS: How can military spouses get involved with what you are doing? Be a part and help you, and have our voices heard?
SL: You know probably the best way to do that is actually getting involved at their post because what we found yester- day when we did our kickoff, on the plane coming home, we sat and talked with some of the Joint Chiefs spouses—and they were phenomenal—and they said our
goal is always to get information all of the way down the line. And that is one of the biggest problems is getting new spouses to understand you need to go to the website, call people, you need to get involved. So that is really the best way to help out.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you for everything that you do, said Mrs. Pence, when she appeared at Fort Carson, Colo. We can never thank you enough for the sacrifices that you make. Your service to our nation cannot be overstated.
MS: Will there be other listening sessions moving forward?
SL: Perhaps. I think now we want to take what we’ve gleaned and make a difference. Now we kind of know these are the areas they’re interested in. It was great yesterday at Fort Carson because when we sat down to have a meeting before we went out to meet with all of the military kids, they were saying, “we hear you,” we know childcare is an issue, here is something we’re doing, we know licensure is an issue, here is something we’re doing… So I think making them aware that we’re watching and we’re anticipating they’re going to change some of these things, kind of gets people moving. And so I think that’s more now where we want to focus. We want to elevate these spouses and tell them how great they are, and the kids as well. We really now want to take what we learned and start getting things moving.
MS: Did you have a chance to meet with some military kids at Fort Carson?
SL: We had so much fun with the military kids… It was great to be able to say to thee kids, thank you for your service. We appreciate mom, we appreciate dad, but right now in this room we’re talking about the kids, and we appreciate your service for the country. And they understood. They got it. They know when mom or dad are deployed, they have to step up. And they take on some more responsibility in the home and it was really fun to ask them that… “Are you helping mom out are you helping dad?” And they’d say, “Yes, I am.” And the parents were saying “They are, they’re great helpers.”
I think that one thing that pleased us yesterday was that there was so much interest around the country. I don’t think we anticipated so many people would get so excited about this issue and I’m just so grateful for our military spouses to see everybody is jumping on board.
