Making the break work : a study of professional women's careers

Abstract

Even among graduate professionals, men and women continue to have different career patterns. Men typically enjoy uninterrupted careers, while women experience discontinuous employment, with a career break for family responsibilities (Hewitt, 1993). A recent comprehensive study (Hakim, 1996) detected a sharp divide between home-centred women and the minority of career-oriented women for whom employment is just as central to their lives as it is for men. Other research (Michaels et al. 1995) highlights the growing desire of graduate women to return to the workplace once they have completed their families. The University of Lincolnshire and Humberside has run ‘Professional Updating for Women’ (PUW) courses to facilitate this process since 1989, designed in conjunction with the Women Returners’ Network and attracting funding from Objective 3 of the European Social Fun