Why do women engineers leave the engineering profession? The roles of work–family conflict, occupational commitment, and perceived organizational support

• Author: Nadya A. Fouad,Romila Singh,Min (Maggie) Wan,Yejun Zhang
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21900
• Date: 01 July 2018
• Published date: 01 July 2018

SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE

Why do women engineers leave the engineering profession?

The roles of work–family conflict, occupational commitment,

and perceived organizational support

Romila Singh

1

| Yejun Zhang

2

| Min (Maggie) Wan

3

| Nadya A. Fouad

1

1

University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee,

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

2

University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma

3

Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas

Correspondence

Romila Singh, Lubar School of Business,

University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee,

Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53211.

Email: romila@uwm.edu

This study investigated the factors that underlie the relationship between work–family conflict

(WFC) and women engineers' intention to leave the occupation. The study draws from three

theories: Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, turnover theory, and Rhodes and Doering's

(1983) integrated model of career change. We proposed that both work interference with fam-

ily (WIF) and family interference with work (FIW) influence women's intention to leave an engi-

neering occupation by decreasing their commitment to the occupation. Using insights from the

above theories and models, we further examined how perceptions of support from the organi-

zation changed the relationship between commitment to the occupation and intention to leave

the occupation, as well as how conflict between work and family was related to intention to

leave the occupation. We tested our predictions using time-lagged data from a sample of

245 women engineers. The results revealed that occupational commitment mediated and

explained the positive relationship between FIW and occupational turnover intentions but not

the relationship between WIF and occupational turnover intentions. In addition, perceptions of

organizational support influenced the relationship between occupational commitment and

occupational turnover intentions and also the indirect relationship between FIW and occupa-

tional turnover intentions. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings as well as

future research directions are discussed.

KEYWORDS

conservation of resources theory, model of career change, occupational commitment,

occupational turnover intentions, perceived organizational support, work–family conflict

1|INTRODUCTION

The “war for talent”is being most actively and intensely waged in the

science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (collectively known

as STEM) fields (“Survey: The Battle for Brain Power,”2006). Among

all the STEM fields, engineering jobs are projected to grow at a faster

rate than other fields in this group (Corbett & Hill, 2015). Indeed, the

demand for workers in engineering jobs continues to increase at a rate

of 9% per year, with a projection of about 500,000 engineering job

openings between 2012 and 2022 (U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau

of Labor Statistics, 2014). However, with a tightening of post 9/11

immigration restrictions on hiring foreign-born or foreign-trained

workers for STEM jobs and an inadequate supply of U.S.-born

workers with engineering degrees (Hewlett et al., 2008), HR managers

are faced with a shrinking labor market for U.S.-born engineers.

Compounding the labor supply and demand problems in the engi-

neering profession is the high turnover rate for engineers from the

engineering profession. In an analysis of the National Science Foun-

dation (NSF) data on engineering graduates, Frehill (2010) found that

only about 65% of men and women who graduate with an under-

graduate degree in engineering take an engineering job, and within

this group, only 40% remain in engineering 10 years into their

careers. The turnover rate for women engineers from the engineering

profession is even higher. Frehill (2010) reported that while male

engineers' retention rate remains steady at about 40% for the next

25 years of their careers, women engineers' attrition from the

This project was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF # 0827553).

Any opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are the authors' and

do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

DOI: 10.1002/hrm.21900

Hum Resour Manage. 2018;57:901–914. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrm © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 901