Signposts Detours and Exits of a Military Wife Who Happens to be a Tenured Professor

As I was leaving campus on April 24, 1995, I received a memorandum informing me of the decision regarding my application for promotion to full professor in the Department of History at Michigan State University (MSU). I became lost in thought as I drove off the campus. The pink sliver of paper on the car seat rekindled memories of my early days in academia.

I wondered how my experiences as a married African-American woman with a family differed from my contemporaries. In short, I asked to what extent had race, class and gender influenced the progression of my career.

Armed with a recently acquired master's degree in American history from Indiana University in the fall of 1965, I accepted a position in North Carolina where I taught traditional courses spread over a fifteen-hour week. Following marriage and the birth of a child, I left university teaching for several years. This phase of my life could be appropriately termed the "mommy track."

We moved to Florida where my husband, an administrative officer in the U.S. Air Force, received an assignment on short notice deploying him to MEAFSA -- the acronym for the Middle East and Africa South of the Sahara. As always, his luggage, updated immunization record and passport were packed and ready.

On the Road

This should not be construed as a complaint. I learned early on that compromise was essential in a two-career family -- especially when the professions were strikingly dissimilar. I could not find gainful employment, except as an adjunct at the University of Tampa -- since the wives of military personnel (in the eyes of many employers) were unreliable. In fact, there was "evidence" (of a dubious nature)to show that they moved often and upon short notice. Other "facts" showed that when spouses mobilized, women with children often reduced work hours and spent more time at home. I was pigeon-holed into the second category.