Married professional women\u27s career exit: Integrating identity and social networks

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to address the idea of opting out for married professional women by presenting a conceptual investigation into the impact that a woman\u27s identity and social networks have in shaping her decisions surrounding career exit. A model is developed and intended to help researchers in this area move beyond existing frameworks when attempting to explain and predict women\u27s career exit. Design/methodology/approach: Research from the identity, social networks, turnover, and careers literatures was analyzed and integrated to put forth a new theoretical lens, represented by the conceptual model developed in this paper, that helps to explain married professional women\u27s career exit. Findings: Development of the model reveals a complex, reciprocal relationship between a woman\u27s identity and her social network and depicts how these factors act in concert to shape women\u27s decisions regarding career exit or opting out. This model also highlights the importance of structural constraints shaping a woman\u27s social network, moderators impacting the relationship between a woman\u27s identity and career exit behaviors, and outcomes of career exit. Originality/value: Although identity is a fundamental element of career development and relationships with others serve as an origin of self and source of self-understanding, the integration of these perspectives has been conspicuously absent from research on women\u27s career exit. Examining the convergence of identity and social networks and the reciprocal relationship these constructs have on career phenomena advances our knowledge of why married professional women choose to opt out or exit their careers. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited