Working Women: Career Breaks and Re-entry in a Fast-changing Business Environment

Abstract

Many reports on working women talks about new trends in career break and re-entry of these women; the experience they have, taken time off from the workforce, and their desire to be re-engaged in employment. Exploring the recent trends in career break and re-entry of working women provides proactive recommendations and practical and positive ways for the employers to facilitate their re-entry and help address the female brain drain. These talented returners, after re-entry, cannot find meaningful and challenging full-time work. This study focuses on the reasons for the re-entry, and shows that women returners are not a homogeneous group and that the length of their career break appears to play a key role in the re-entry process; the longer the break the greater the impact. Women who interrupt their careers experience downward mobility in salary and status. Also, such career breaks counteract career development due to the lack of support mechanisms, such as flexi-time schemes, part-time work, and insufficient training. The reasons for working for identified categories of working women are not same as tested using Z-test. Also, the major trends in career breaks and career re-entry identified are measured on Likert scale and ranking is done using weighted mean.