Limited research on professional women's labour force re‐entry after a career break (so‐called ‘opting out’) finds that women redirect away from former careers. Little is known about why this occurs. Our study, based on in‐depth interviews with 54 at‐home mothers, extends prior research to address this question. We find that among women who intended to return to work (who constitute the majority), most planned to pursue alternative careers, typically in traditionally female‐dominated professions or were uncertain about their career direction; few planned to return to their former employers. The reasons for this redirection were women's negative experiences in family inflexible occupations, skill depreciation and perceived age discrimination. Equally or more important, however, was their adaptation to new constraints and opportunities at home (such as increased involvement in mothering and community work), which engendered an aspirational shift towards new, care‐oriented professions that were lower paid and had lower status. We discuss the policy implications of these findings.
Increasing attention has been given to high-achieving women who appear to be leaving their careers in favor of staying home full-time to raise children. Some commentators interpret this trend as reflecting these women’s embrace of a “new traditionalism,” a rejection of feminist goals in favor of more traditional gender roles. Based on intensive interviews with forty-three women, the authors find that participants’ decisions to interrupt careers are highly conflicted and not grounded in a return to traditional roles. Although family concerns figure prominently, they are not the major reason behind most women’s decisions. Work-based factors play a primary role, with characteristics of husbands playing an important secondary role. The authors conclude that by virtue of their occupational status and class membership, professional women are caught in a double bind between the competing models of the ideal worker and ideal parent. The authors discuss the policy implications for the organization of work-family life.
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