The Experiences of Women Engineers as They Transition to Leadership Roles

Abstract

Transitioning into a new leadership or management role is considered one of the most challenging transitions in organizational life. An unsuccessful transition can have negative impacts on both the organization and the transitioner. The new leadership role often requires learning a new set of skills, acquiring new knowledge, and developing interpersonal relationships with a new group of individuals.

Engineers frequently find transitions into leadership roles especially challenging, largely due to a predisposition towards technical tasks rather than the interpersonal or social aspects of work roles. Women engineers, who are a distinct minority in the male-dominated engineering workforce, may find transitions to leadership roles especially daunting. Gender stereotypes neither cast women as engineers, nor as leaders. However, prior research has not explored how women engineers experience a transition into a new leadership role.

In this qualitative study, I sought to gain insights into the experiences of women engineers as they transition into a new leadership role. Using semi-structured interviews, participants (N=11) were invited to share stories about their transition experiences. Through their stories, two sets of findings were revealed: the role of socialization processes in shaping the career tracks and transition experiences of the participants; and seven thematic findings which captured commonalties across the participants’ experiences. The women engineers in this study were influenced by professional, gender, and role socialization processes, through which they identified with the engineering profession, found both acceptance and challenges as women engineers, and used primarily individualized and proactive tactics to learn their new role.

The seven thematic findings were: High Workload/High Stress; Focus on Others; Coping Strategies; Changed by Transition; Transition as Validation/Vindication; Leading with Humility; and Affective/Emotional Responses. Each of the thematic findings was associated with at least 10 of the 11 participants. While some of these themes, or their underlying constructs, have been reported in other transition studies, several of the findings are unique to this study.

By developing a better understanding of the experiences women engineers have as they transition into leadership roles, organizations may find strategies and mechanisms by which they can encourage more women engineers to seek out and persist in leadership positions. Such strategies may help organizations meet strategic goals towards diversity, equity, inclusion, and retention. This study contributes to the literature on women engineers, women transitioning into leadership roles, and the broader leader transition literature. While this study was exploratory in nature, additional avenues for future research are recommended.