IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/busper/v9y2021i2p195-214.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Career Break, Not a Brake on Career: A Study of the Reasons and Enablers of Women’s Re-entry to Technology Careers in India

Author

Listed:
  • Swati Singh
  • Sita Vanka

Abstract

Career re-entry of women in the technology sector remains an unexplored area. With the increasing focus of information technology (IT) organisations to attract, retain and promote women at the workplace, career re-entry among women professionals’ merits attention. The purpose of this study is to investigate the reasons and enablers of career re-entry among women who plan a re-entry in the IT sector in India. This study employed a qualitative research method and used interviews as a tool for data collection. Data collected through the interviews of re-entry women ( n = 28) was analysed with the help of qualitative analysis software ATLAS.ti. Further, text analysis was also performed through Voyant tools. Findings suggest that a strong career identity, a high level of work centrality and an urge to regain financial independence motivated women to return to IT careers. Findings revealed seven distinct enablers of career re-entry. Based on this finding, a model of the support ecosystem is discussed that presents an intricate relationship between the enablers of career re-entry, support ecosystem and career resumption. Moreover, findings indicate that an active agency of women, a support ecosystem and favourable life events lead to career re-entry. Managerial and theoretical implications of findings are discussed. The article concludes with limitations and future research agenda.

Suggested Citation

  • Swati Singh & Sita Vanka, 2021. "Career Break, Not a Brake on Career: A Study of the Reasons and Enablers of Women’s Re-entry to Technology Careers in India," Business Perspectives and Research, , vol. 9(2), pages 195-214, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:busper:v:9:y:2021:i:2:p:195-214
    DOI: 10.1177/2278533720964328
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2278533720964328
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2278533720964328?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mary Gregory & Sara Connolly, 2008. "Feature: The Price of Reconciliation: Part-Time Work, Families and Women's Satisfaction," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(526), pages 1-7, February.
    2. Johan Hombert & Adrien Matray, 2019. "The Long-Term Consequences of the Tech Bubble on Skilled Workers' Earnings," Working Papers 255, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies..
    3. Alan Manning & Barbara Petrongolo, 2008. "The Part-Time Pay Penalty for Women in Britain," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(526), pages 28-51, February.
    4. Himanshi Tiwari, 2019. "A Narrative Enquiry into Gender Role Differentiation by Males of the Family in Career Choice Decisions of Female Child," Business Perspectives and Research, , vol. 7(2), pages 132-146, July.
    5. Rajeshwari Gwal, 2016. "Working Women: Career Breaks and Re-entry in a Fast-changing Business Environment," Metamorphosis: A Journal of Management Research, , vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, June.
    6. Himanshi Tiwari, 2019. "Encounters with Gendered Realities in Career Decision-making While Scouting Women Participation in the Indian Workforce," Business Perspectives and Research, , vol. 7(2), pages 147-162, July.
    7. Clem Herman, 2015. "Rebooting and Rerouting: Women's Articulations of Frayed Careers in Science, Engineering and Technology Professions," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(4), pages 324-338, July.
    8. Selda Koydemir & Ömer Şimşek & Astrid Schütz & Arun Tipandjan, 2013. "Differences in How Trait Emotional Intelligence Predicts Life Satisfaction: The Role of Affect Balance Versus Social Support in India and Germany," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 51-66, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nicole Bosch & Anja Deelen & Rob Euwals, 2010. "Is Part‐time Employment Here to Stay? Working Hours of Dutch Women over Successive Generations," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 24(1), pages 35-54, March.
    2. Nicole Bosch & Anja Deelen & Rob Euwals, 2008. "Is part-time employment here to stay? Evidence from the Dutch Labour Force Survey 1992-2005," CPB Discussion Paper 100.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    3. Ewa Cukrowska-Torzewska & Anna Lovasz, 2017. "The Impact of Parenthood on the Gender Wage Gap – a Comparative Analysis of 26 European Countries," Working Papers 2017-25, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.
    4. Tomás Rau B., 2010. "Part-Time Work in Chile," Journal Economía Chilena (The Chilean Economy), Central Bank of Chile, vol. 13(1), pages 39-59, April.
    5. Maite BLÁZQUEZ CUESTA & Julián MORAL CARCEDO, 2014. "Women's part-time jobs: “Flexirisky” employment in five European countries," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 153(2), pages 269-292, June.
    6. Vanessa Gash & Antje Mertens & Laura Romeu Gordo, 2010. "Women between Part-Time and Full-Time Work: The Influence of Changing Hours of Work on Happiness and Life-Satisfaction," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 268, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    7. Mario Lackner & Christine Zulehner, 2013. "Rent Sharing and Gender Discrimination in Collegiate Athletics," Economics working papers 2013-09, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    8. Sian, S., 2023. "Off-ramps and on-ramps: Career continuity and discontinuity in professional accountancy," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    9. Sara Connolly & Mary Gregory, 2010. "Dual tracks: part-time work in life-cycle employment for British women," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 23(3), pages 907-931, June.
    10. Bosch, Nicole & Deelen, Anja & Euwals, Rob, 2008. "Is Part-time Employment Here To Stay? Evidence from the Dutch Labour Force Survey 1992–2005," IZA Discussion Papers 3367, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Kyyrä, Tomi & Arranz, José María & García-Serrano, Carlos, 2017. "Does Part-Time Work Help Unemployed Workers to Find Full-Time Work? Evidence from Spain," IZA Discussion Papers 10770, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. John K. Dagsvik & Zhiyang Jia, 2016. "Labor Supply as a Choice Among Latent Jobs: Unobserved Heterogeneity and Identification," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(3), pages 487-506, April.
    13. Booth, A.L. & van Ours, J.C., 2007. "Job Satisfaction And Family Happiness : The Part-Time Work Problem," Discussion Paper 2007-69, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    14. Fernández-Kranz, Daniel & Rodríguez-Planas, Núria, 2011. "The part-time pay penalty in a segmented labor market," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 591-606, October.
    15. Albanesi, Stefania & Olivetti, Claudia & Petrongolo, Barbara, 2022. "Families, labor markets and policy," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118038, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. Francesco Devicienti & Elena Grinza & Davide Vannoni, 2015. "The Impact of Part-Time Work on Firm Total Factor Productivity: Evidence from Italy," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 433, Collegio Carlo Alberto.
    17. Alison Booth & Jan Ours, 2013. "Part-time jobs: what women want?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 26(1), pages 263-283, January.
    18. Michaela Fuchs & Anja Rossen & Antje Weyh & Gabriele Wydra‐Somaggio, 2021. "Where do women earn more than men? Explaining regional differences in the gender pay gap," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(5), pages 1065-1086, November.
    19. Fernández-Kranz, Daniel & Rodríguez-Planas, Núria, 2013. "Can Parents' Right to Work Part-Time Hurt Childbearing-Aged Women? A Natural Experiment with Administrative Data," IZA Discussion Papers 7509, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Benjamin Artz & Amanda H. Goodall & Andrew J. Oswald, 2018. "Do Women Ask?," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(4), pages 611-636, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:busper:v:9:y:2021:i:2:p:195-214. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.