Military spouse hierarchies mirror their husbands’ command structures.

Evidence

In years past, the wives of high-ranking officers created “wives’ clubs” with a hierarchy paralleling their husbands’ ranks. The woman married to the highest-ranking officer was considered the “mother” to the women “under her,” just as her husband exercised patriarchal authority over his uniformed subordinates. The other officers’ wives, in turn, were unofficially expected to mentor the wives of lower-ranked personnel, creating an entire support network for families. Today, each of the armed services maintains official support organizations for units and connected family members. In the Army, family members are automatically enrolled in Family Readiness Groups that rely heavily on the volunteer labor of spouses to organize support activities and communication networks for families. Like wives’ clubs of old, each group’s leader is often the spouse of a unit’s highest ranking officer. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 459

Categorization

• XREF: Demonstrates how the military’s patriarchal command structure is reproduced among unpaid civilian spouses.