The Global Perspective of Women's Career Interruptions: An Integrative Review

Abstract: It has been demonstrated that women take a more broken and nonlinear career path than men, which can result in career interruptions at specific points in their lives (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996; Beck, 1997; Elley-Brown et al., 2018; Mainiero & Sullivan, 2006). Career interruptions refer to taking a break from previous employment (Bian & Wang, 2019). The decision of not working for a while has potential negative consequences such as disconnection from professional associations, threatened self-identity and human capital depreciation (e.g. potential wage penalty) (Bian & Wang, 2019). Despite this, many career women, mainly working mothers, still choose to pause their careers at specific points for a variety of reasons such as childbearing, gender bias and lack of support. After reentering the workforce, career women begin a process of resocialization in which they learn about the world of work in a new way (Ladge & Greenberg, 2015). The COVID-19 pandemic has presented unprecedentedly challenges to the world, and career and work are now taking on different meanings in the context of remote and hybrid work.

Purpose:
The purpose of this research is two-folded: (a) to examine the phenomenon of women's career interruptions from a global perspective and (b) to provide an updated, evidence-based insights into career interruptions including its causes and impact on professional women in diverse cultural settings.
Method
To accomplish the two goals mentioned above, I have adopted the integrative literature review approach proposed by Torraco (2005, 2016). This methodology argues that an integrative literature review, reviews, critiques, and synthesizes representative literature on a topic in an integrated way such that new frameworks and perspectives on the topic are generated. To guide the literature search systematically, I have developed the following inclusion criteria in alignment with These criteria were aligned with the research purpose and my desire to provide credible, updated, and evidence-based findings.
1. The article must be published in an academic journal.
2. The article must be peer-reviewed.
3. The article must report an empirical study.
4. The article must be written in one of the following languages: English, Persian, Arabic, and Chinese.
5. The article must be published since 2000 to date.

The following databases have been used for the search: APA PsycINFO, education source, ERIC, ProQuest dissertations and thesis, Family studies abstracts and manual searches of Google Scholar. Key terms used independently or in combination, including women, career, career interruption, and career break. For data analysis, I used a mind-mapping application called MindMeister, which is a useful tool for synthesizing identified articles. At the time of writing this abstract, I am still in the process of searching and analyzing literature.

Contributions to HRD Research and Practice
This research will contribute to HRD, particularly the career development literature. By including publications in multiple languages, findings from this review will broaden our current understanding of women’s career interruptions and advance the body of international HRD.

Keywords: Women, career interruption, career break

Reference:
Arthur, M. and Rousseau, D. (1996), The Boundaryless Career: A New Employment Principle for a New Organizational Era, Oxford University Press, New York, NY.

Bian, X., & Wang, J. (2019). Women's career interruptions: An integrative review. European Journal of Training and Development, 43(9), 801-820.

Ladge, J.J. and Greenberg, D.N. (2015), “Becoming a working mother: managing identity and efficacy uncertainties during resocialization”, Human Resource Management, Vol. 54 No. 6, pp. 977-998.

Torraco, R.J. (2005), “Writing integrative literature reviews: guidelines and examples”, Human Resource Development Review, Vol. 4 No. 3, pp. 356-367.