The Returnship Road

Marriage and motherhood are happy milestones in the journey of life, but these (more often than not) come with costs only for women and not for men. Often, women have to take a break from their careers to cater to the demands of the new family. But when the kids are older, many are eager to get back to their careers. And then they are faced with a new set of challenges: how should they navigate the changed realities and uncertainties of the job market? They might have lost contact with their previous employers or co-workers. How do they find out about new job openings? How should they modify their resumes to make them more contemporary? How should they dress for the interview? Do they need to update their skills? The challenges seem daunting. 

At the other side of the job market divide are the employers. For them, it would make excellent business sense to get these women back into the workforce. They have work experience, they are older and more mature, they are done with their child-bearing imperatives, and they are clearly highly self-motivated. 

How can we make the two ends of this very important segment of the job market – returnee women looking to re-enter paid work and prospective employers – meet? What are the challenges and issues specific to this segment that companies need to be aware of? What works? What are the best practices to encourage returnee women?

In this report, we aim to answer some of these questions by laying out the problem, drawing on case studies of returnee programmes, and examining evidence of what has worked in different contexts. The report has been produced in collaboration with the Godrej DEI Lab.