Abstract Book of the 3rd Global Conference on Gender Studies
Year: 2025
[PDF]
Do Intersecting Adaptive Strategies and Career Breaks: Exploring the Role of Creativity, Problem-Solving, and Resourcefulness among Women Hinder or Facilitate Inclusion?
Dr. Reenu Singh
ABSTRACT:
This study aims to explore how women’s adaptive behaviors influence their career-break decisions, particularly in resource-constrained environments. It investigates whether personal coping strategies, such as financial creativity, problem-solving (jugaad), and job role modifications, impact career continuity. Regression and chi-square analyses revealed that adaptive meal planning significantly predicted career breaks (coefficient = 1.168, p = 0.0405), suggesting that women who excel in managing household resources are more likely to take career breaks. Socio-economic mobility may moderate this effect, as women from lower or middle-class backgrounds who have improved financially may continue resourcefulness out of habit rather than necessity. Modifying job responsibilities showed a marginally significant negative relationship with career breaks (coefficient = -0.300, p = 0.0756), indicating that women who adjust their work roles tend to stay employed longer. Other behaviors, such as saving money creatively and using unconventional solutions, did not show significant effects. The regression model explained 53% (R² = 0.529) of the variance in career breaks (adjusted R²= 0.360), with an F-statistic of 3.142 (p = 0.0415), confirming overall significance. These findings highlight how adaptive behaviors, resourcefulness, and flexibility shape women’s career decisions, particularly in resource-constrained situations. This study contributes to understanding how personal coping strategies influence career trajectories, and adaptive behaviors like resourcefulness and flexibility may influence career break decisions. The study contributes to understanding how personal coping strategies and career management skills, particularly in resource-constrained situations, affect women’s career trajectories.
Keywords: career breaks, gender studies, wellbeing, women, problem solving