Alternative Credential or Alternative Pathway? Military Experience and STEM Occupations By Gender

Previous research indicates a strong association between military service and STEM trajectories, especially for women veterans. In this paper, we analyze the extent to which military service functions as 1) an alternative credential, allowing veterans to bypass classic postsecondary credentials, and/or 2) an alternative pathway via educational benefits, that facilitate earning a (non)STEM bachelor’s degree. Using ACS 2014-18 data, we perform a mediation analysis using the potential outcomes framework to examine the total, direct, and indirect effects of military service on STEM occupational outcomes. Results suggest three distinct pathways into STEM occupations. Military service serves as an alternate credential that enables veterans to move directly into STEM occupations. This finding holds for all veterans, regardless of gender. Military service also serves as an alternative pathway via STEM degrees, but the returns to post-secondary credentials are gendered, producing dissimilar career trajectories among veterans: For veteran women, military service indirectly increases rates of employment in STEM via higher rates of bachelor’s degree earning, especially in STEM fields. In contrast, veteran men are overall less likely to earn bachelor’s degrees, yet both STEM and non-STEM degrees help propel them into STEM occupations. In other words, for veteran men, military service boosts the impact of any bachelor’s degree earned, making it more likely that veteran men smoothly transition from (non)STEM degrees to STEM occupations.