Career Resumption for Educated Baby Boomer Mothers: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

Baby boomer women represented the first large cohort of highly educated young females to break through the glass ceiling to attain high-powered jobs. Higher education shaped their identities and social positions in early adult life through novel career opportunities and enhanced personal financial capacity. However, as the UK began to ascend from its postwar malaise to follow the United States in becoming a more conspicuously consumptive society, a privileged majority of this cohort reverted to traditional expectations. The economic expansion and wealth creation that followed had enabled many to choose to remain stay-at-home mothers during midlife. Following the ongoing global financial crisis, their reemployability is under consideration here.

Keywords:

• baby boomer women
• work–life balance
• workplace inequality
• cumulative advantage or disadvantage
• preference theory

Notes

1. To evaluate research trends on women in the workplace, a review of articles published between 1985 and 1997 was conducted by Drs. Elizabeth Cooper and Susan Bosco of the University of Rhode Island across four journals relevant to GIO-type articles: Journal of Applied Psychology, Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, and Psychology of Women.