--- title: White House Looks to Help Female Vets Find Jobs description: Post-9/11 female veterans are twice as likely to be unemployed than their male counterparts canonical: https://time.com/3578363/michelle-obama-advice-to-job-seeking-female-veterans/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-11T17:17:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-14T00:18:25.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: White House Looks to Help Female Vets Find Jobs og:description: Post-9/11 female veterans are twice as likely to be unemployed than their male counterparts og:url: https://time.com/3578363/michelle-obama-advice-to-job-seeking-female-veterans/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta071a40ba8886ed5/6987682f8e0601fd32458802/ap210553543066.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3057 og:image:height: 1720 og:image:alt: Michelle Obama og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: White House Looks to Help Female Vets Find Jobs twitter:description: Post-9/11 female veterans are twice as likely to be unemployed than their male counterparts twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta071a40ba8886ed5/6987682f8e0601fd32458802/ap210553543066.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Michelle Obama Wants Female Veterans to Flaunt Their Skills When Seeking Jobs by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Updated: Dec 14, 2023 12:18 AM UTCPublished: Nov 11, 2014 5:17 PM UTC  First lady Michelle Obama speaks at the Women Veterans Career Development Forum at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial (WIMSA) at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., Monday, Nov. 10, 2014. First lady Michelle Obama speaks at the Women Veterans Career Development Forum at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial (WIMSA) at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., Monday, Nov. 10, 2014.Susan Walsh—AP by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Updated: Dec 14, 2023 12:18 AM UTCPublished: Nov 11, 2014 5:17 PM UTC First Lady Michelle Obama thinks veteran women “can’t be modest” when it comes to seeking employment. “You’ve got to show off a little bit,” the First Lady told a group of over [200 active-duty, retired, and veteran women](http://www.whitehouse.gov//blog/2014/11/10/first-lady-michelle-obama-honors-women-veterans) on Monday. “And believe me, you all have so much to show off. That’s the beauty of it — those years in the military set you apart from so many other candidates.” Obama gave that advice at a forum on veteran women’s employment where, as a part of the ongoing “Joining Forces initiative,” the First Lady announced [new partnerships](http://www.whitehouse.gov//blog/2014/11/10/first-lady-michelle-obama-honors-women-veterans) with online platforms that will make the job-seeking process easier for those who serve our country. More women serve in the military than ever before, and as of 2014 about [10% of our nation’s veterans ](http://www.va.gov/WOMENVET/docs/WomenVeteransPopulationFactSheet.pdf)are women. But our most recent female veterans—those who have fought in Afghanistan and Iraq—faced an unemployment rate of [11.2% in October](http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t05.htm), more than five points higher than their male counterparts and double the rate of civilian women. In a recent article in [_Redbook_](http://www.redbookmag.com/kids-family/blogs/mom-blog/michelle-obama-veterans?click=main%5Fsr), the First Lady put the struggles of women at the center of the conversation on veterans’ transition back to civilian life. Many female service members have not only been [mothers, but single moms](http://media.iava.org/IAVA%5FWomensReport%5F2009.pdf), making the stresses women face when transitioning even harder. The Obama Administration has been working to expand opportunities for veterans since the First Lady and Dr. Jill Biden launched “Joining Forces” in 2011\. Last spring, the introduction of the “Veterans Employment Center,” a new website that helps veterans find and apply for jobs, put increasing career prospects at the center of the initiative. The LinkedIn and Coursera initiatives are intended to expand those prospects by connecting veterans with work. Veterans on [LinkedIn](http://www.whitehouse.gov//blog/2014/11/10/first-lady-michelle-obama-honors-women-veterans) now will receive free access to a premium job-seeker profile and can link those profiles directly to the veteran-specific job hub. On [Coursera](http://blog.coursera.org/post/102287882992/michelle-obama-announces-free-coursera-credentials-and), an online education platform, veterans can now receive a free certificate from an in-demand course. Other companies including tech powerhouse Uber have started vets programs. In September, Uber launched an ambitious effort to hire [50,000 veterans as drivers over the next 18 months.](http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/4/7150225/uber-is-recruiting-50000-veterans) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3578363/michelle-obama-advice-to-job-seeking-female-veterans/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3578363/michelle-obama-advice-to-job-seeking-female-veterans/"},"headline":"Michelle Obama Wants Female Veterans to Flaunt Their Skills When Seeking Jobs","datePublished":"2014-11-11T17:17:00.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-14T00:18:25.000Z","description":"The post-9/11 female veteran unemployment rate was twice that of men in October","url":"https://time.com/3578363/michelle-obama-advice-to-job-seeking-female-veterans/","keywords":["White House","Michelle Obama","First Lady","Veterans Day"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta071a40ba8886ed5/6987682f8e0601fd32458802/ap210553543066.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta071a40ba8886ed5/6987682f8e0601fd32458802/ap210553543066.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Michelle Obama","caption":"Michelle Obama","creditText":"Susan Walsh—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3578363/michelle-obama-advice-to-job-seeking-female-veterans/","name":"Michelle Obama Wants Female Veterans to Flaunt Their Skills When Seeking Jobs"}}]}] ```