2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Engineers who take a career break represent a skilled and often untapped source of talent that could contribute to diversifying the engineering workforce. However, significant barriers can make returning to technical roles challenging. We ask the following research question: How do women engineers navigate the transition of returning to an engineering career after a career break? This exploratory qualitative study analyzed fourteen interviews from a career reentry podcast to investigate the experiences and strategies of women engineers reentering the technical workforce. The study takes an asset-based approach to examine how women engineers utilize their unique experiences to return to the technical workforce. As women engineers moved in, through, and out of their return to work transitions, they utilized numerous skills, strategies, and supports to overcome challenges. The circumstances of each returner’s transition depended on their field, break experiences, and available opportunities. To discuss the factors that impacted women engineer returners’ journeys, we utilize the ‘Four Ss’ framework from Schlossberg’s Transition Theory. These four elements of transition–self, situation, support, and strategies–were developed to help adults in transition ‘take stock’ of the resources around them. We utilize this framework to understand how women engineers used resources to navigate their transition back to work. Our findings show that women who have successfully returned to the field used a variety of strategies to navigate their transition, including leveraging networks, upskilling, leveraging experiences and skills gained during their breaks, reentry programs and mentorship. We hope this work offers insights into the unique experiences of women engineers returning to work after a career break and can guide future research to support these engineers.