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This study aims to identify demographic characteristics, personal attributes and attitudes and social support factors that adversely or favourably affect the likelihood of career persistence amongst women workers of the Indian IT sector.

The research, grounded in the social cognitive career theory, analyses primary data collected from 850 women working in IT via a survey. Based on an original definition of career persistence, the sample was segregated into 427 persistent and 423 non-persistent women. Logistic regression was performed to test for the effect of various determinants on the likelihood of women being career persistent versus non-persistent.

Being married, having children, as well as high levels of belief in gender disadvantage and work–family conflict lowered the likelihood of career persistence amongst women. While being a manager, possessing high career identity, high occupational culture fit, positive psychological capital and family support boost the likelihood.

The study examines women's actual continuance in an IT career vis-à-vis exit from the workforce/IT field, rather than women's stated intent to persist/quit as previously investigated. It uses logistic regression to identify both hurdles and aids on the path of women's career persistence. The findings can help recognize women more likely to struggle, thus be a first step in targeted organizational interventions to plug a leaky talent pipeline.

The goals of this study were to examine the utility of social cognitive career theory in a South Asian context, extend SCCT beyond its individualistic roots to include social and contextual variables, and explore the possible differential validity of SCCT predictors for men and women.

The study involved an in‐class survey of Bangladeshi undergraduate engineering students including 209 women and 640 men.

Despite stronger relationships between persistence and two predictors – social aspirations and self‐efficacy – for men, self‐efficacy, the core construct of SCCT, was the most important predictor of persistence for both women and men thus supporting the applicability of SCCT in non‐Western contexts.

Several new measures were developed for this study which provide a basis for future research but will require further validation. The results demonstrated the applicability of SCCT in a non‐Western context but the amount of variance explained was modest. Thus, additional research into context‐specific factors affecting persistence is warranted.

The results suggest that interventions intended to enhance the participation of women in non‐traditional fields such as engineering should focus on enhancing self‐efficacy, potentially through creating a more supportive learning environment.

The current study is one of the first to assess the applicability of SCCT in a non‐Western context and to examine the differential validity of SCCT predictors for women and men.

The purpose of this study is to explore the factors that influence Saudi Arabian women to persist in nontraditional work careers, which are primarily in gender-integrated work environments and male-dominated industries.

Qualitative research was conducted based on semistructured interviews with 30 Saudi women – 18 of whom were working in nontraditional careers and 12 of whom had worked in nontraditional careers but subsequently left to pursue more traditional, female-associated career opportunities. Interview data were recorded, transcribed and analyzed using grounded theory methods.

Distinct similarities and differences between the two subsamples emerged from the data. Similarities between the two groups included men's underestimation of women's performance, lack of access to workplace sites and resources, male colleagues' cultural fears of violating gender norms and social rejection of women in the workplace. Women who persisted in nontraditional work careers articulated a high level of self-efficacy, an optimistic future vision, positive relationships with male colleagues and family support, which enabled them to persevere despite numerous difficulties associated with working in a male-dominated environment. A conceptual model is developed that integrates the findings explaining Saudi women's persistence in nontraditional work careers.

Self-reported data and a small sample size are the main limitations of this study.

Male managers of women in nontraditional work settings are encouraged to engage positively with women professionals in their teams and to provide opportunities for growth and development for all members of the workforce. Saudi public policy decision-makers, families, educators and organizations interested in retaining and increasing female workforce participation should take into account the factors influencing Saudi women's persistence in nontraditional work careers.

Although some studies in Western contexts have addressed the factors that influence the persistence of women in nontraditional careers, less work has been done in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) sociocultural context. Specifically, in the present study, the authors investigate the factors that influence women's persistence in nontraditional careers in Saudi Arabia's high gender-role-oriented culture.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the impact of certain factors (such as working mothers’ attitudes towards career role salience, notion of career success, work-life balance and the impact of organisational support systems available for childcare) on career persistence, despite parenthood, and career re-entry after parenthood. It is conducted in relation to new age, young working mothers of the booming IT sector in India.

A survey questionnaire was administered to 138 working mothers in the IT sector to analyse the impact of working mothers’ career role salience, notion of career success, work-life balance and the impact of organisational support systems available for childcare on career persistence, despite parenthood.

The findings state that re-entry is also a growing phenomenon, in as much as career breaks are an accepted reality. Career role salience and notions of career success are important predictors of career re-entry of young mothers. Most importantly, this study highlights the significant role of the trusted, extended family support system, that is characteristically unique to Indian social fabric, in enabling women’s career persistence and career re-entry after motherhood.

Like most survey research, this study’s validity is also limited to the findings on the self-reported responses. Nevertheless, the study points to new areas to be researched, such as the possibility of the same findings with older mothers who have spent considerable years in their careers, or whether the same sample would answer differently after a few years.

The paper includes implications for society and organisations, concerning opting out, and for undertaking genuine initiatives to enable and support women to re-enter their careers after breaks, so that the decision to persist, exit or re-enter their careers remains the privileged choice of women employees.

The paper fulfils an identified need to study how parenthood affects women’s careers in the IT sector and need for organisations in India to understand the practicality of women employees’ needs to integrate work and life.

Women remain dramatically underrepresented in the engineering profession and far fewer women than men persist in the field. This study aims to identify individual and contextual factors that distinguish women who persist in engineering careers in the US.

Qualitative research was conducted based on semi‐structured interviews with 31 women engineers, ten of whom had left an engineering career and 21 persisting for on average 21 years. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, coded and analyzed.

Women who persisted in engineering careers articulated high levels of self efficacy, described themselves in terms of their identity as an engineer, and were motivated by the challenges and novelty of the profession. Women engineers' ability to adapt enabled them to persist and thrive despite working in a male‐dominated culture characterized by difficulties associated with the workplace, including discrimination. Women who opted out of engineering were less likely to recognize options in navigating the workplace and some felt as if they were pushed into engineering. Persistent engineers were less likely to be married and had fewer children.

Although appropriate for an inductive study using a grounded theory approach the sample was small and the data was self reported.

A model is developed that integrates individual and contextual factors explaining a woman's persistence in an engineering career and has potential to explain persistence in other professions. To retain more women in engineering careers, organizations and managers should provide opportunities to develop identified skills within the professional domain and should provide opportunities for women engineers that provide continuous learning, on‐going challenges and novel work.

Although numerous studies have addressed the retention of women in academic engineering programs and several recent studies have described why women leave engineering careers, the novelty of this study is that it addresses why women stay.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the career motivations of future counseling professionals.

Students completing their Masters of Counseling (n=174) responded to a 30 min survey about their career motivations, counseling career choice satisfaction, planned persistence in the counseling profession and perceptions of the demand and reward structure offered by counseling work. Motivational profiles were educed using hierarchical cluster analysis and compared via MANOVA.

Four distinct profiles were identified: “moderately engaged with family values,” “lower engaged,” “altruistic with family values” and “multiply motivated.” Clusters differed in their perceptions of the demand and reward structure offered by a counseling career, and their level of satisfaction with, and planned persistence in the profession. Cluster composition was unrelated to age, gender or pursuit of previous careers.

Implications for educators pertain to capitalizing on career motivations for different types of entrants, to tailor recruitment and professional preparation.

The authors add to existing literature by drawing on the theoretical lens of expectancy-value theory in a person-centered approach, to the study of counselor motivations, professional perceptions and career choice satisfaction.

The purpose of this research is to examine career persistence and job satisfaction of beginning teachers. Design/methodology/approach – Four hundred and fifty‐one tenth grade students from a nationally representative sample, who aspired to be teachers, were examined over a ten year period regarding their career choices. Students who persisted in teaching were compared to students who did not persist with regard to job satisfaction. A job satisfaction model was tested using clusters of variables as guided by Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT).

Students who persisted in teaching were significantly more satisfied than both those who did not persist and those with non‐teaching careers. Beginning teachers were more satisfied with their jobs than those in other occupations. Teachers who had teaching licenses also reported being more satisfied than those who did not have licenses. The social‐contextual factors, i.e. race, socioeconomic status, teaching license, parents' education, and occupation were among the best predictors of job satisfaction. Research limitations/implications – We did not measure self‐efficacy directly. Instead, we used the separate yet highly correlated constructs, self‐concept and locus of control, to represent the self‐efficacy. For improvement, further research may use a more direct measure of self‐efficacy. Practical implications – Awareness of key factors influencing persistence in teaching career and job satisfaction identified in this study would provide school administrators with a sound basis for identifying students who are likely to persist in becoming teachers, and in retaining satisfied teachers. Originality/value – Findings of this study should assist educational administrators to better understand factors related to selection and retention of beginning teachers.

This paper seeks to explore career centrality, belief in gender disadvantage, and career success definition as the determinants of career persistence among women software professionals in emerging economies like India. The control variables used are marital and parental status.

A survey questionnaire was administered to 190 software women professionals and statistical analyses were used to test the hypotheses.

Belief in gender disadvantage and objective success definition are differentiators for career persistence while career centrality is not. Marital status and parental status are relevant control variables.

Further exploration is needed of the dimensions of career centrality constructs and control for demographic variables.

Organizations should consider investments in child care support and other flexible work options so that women continue to remain in their careers.

This is the first known study to explore career persistence among women with a focus on culture unique to Asian countries like India.

This study aims to identify women professionals' strategies to persist in the male-dominated technology industry situated in the Bangladeshi socio-cultural context.

In-depth interviews with women tech professionals were conducted to identify and explore the strategies. Thematic coding was used for data analysis.

The findings suggest that the complex interplay of macro-, meso- and micro-factors pushes women to defy societal and gender norms in their choice and persistence, yet they simultaneously conform to these norms. By simultaneous expressions of doing and undoing gender, these women dealt with hierarchies and inequalities, navigated masculinized industry and empowered themselves within a patriarchal culture. The strategies effectively allowed them to demonstrate agency and persist in tech occupations.

The study participants were women and recruited using snowball sampling. Future research could benefit from recruiting a larger, more varied sample using random sampling.

The study can inform teaching and policy initiatives to increase women's representation in tech sectors through awareness campaigns, policy interventions and counseling.

The research extends the doing and undoing framework by integrating the relational perspective to explain women's agency and resilience situated in a patriarchal context. The paper focuses on women's micro-individual strategies to navigate macro- and meso-level forces. Moreover, Bangladesh is an under-researched context, and findings from the study can help design potential intervention strategies to increase women's participation.

The under-representation of women working in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) careers is a persistent problem worldwide. This dilemma is exacerbated by the fact that an insufficient number of women enroll in STEM studies, and a significant proportion of those who do join then opt out of their STEM careers at different points in their lives. The protean attitude emphasizes agentic individual control over one’s career, and thus offers women substantial potential for developing and enhancing career outcomes. Therefore, this study aims to investigate coping self-efficacy as an antecedent and career identity as a consequent of a protean attitude for women working in STEM.

Using a questionnaire survey, data were collected from 482 women working in STEM in the Middle East region. Multiple regression and bootstrapping methods were used in the analysis of the data.

The findings indicate that coping self-efficacy positively affects both protean attitude and career identity. The results also show that a protean attitude mediates the relationship between coping self-efficacy and career identity.

This research presents organizational management and government policy recommendations aimed at increasing the recruitment and retention of women in STEM careers.

The study addresses some of the main challenges related to identifying antecedents and outcomes of protean attitude.