Military service and the socioeconomic attainment of French men, 1940–1980

Abstract

Many previous researchers have evaluated how the socioeconomic trajectories of American men were shaped by military service across different eras. However, few have explored how these pathways may have varied in other geographic contexts, assessing the lives of veterans of other countries. This article applies theories derived from the American case to evaluate the socioeconomic progress of veterans across four decades in France. It uses data from the Formation, Qualification Professionnelle (FQP) surveys of 1977 and 1985, which include information provided by men who were eligible to serve during the historical period stretching from World War II through the late-1970s, a period during which the French armed forces were involved in wars in both Indochina and Algeria. In brief, the findings show that these men enlisted in the armed forces on the basis both of family background and of educational attainment in consistent fashion across the four decades. Veterans appear to have worked in slightly different occupations from non-veterans, though this variation stems partly from measured pre-service differences between the two types of men.