Professional women's midcareer satisfaction: Toward an explanatory framework

For the last two decades, professional women have entered the workforce at an unprecedented pace. Despite their labor force participation rates, numerous studies reveal that professional women face stereotyping, struggle with bias in performance appraisal, promotion, and salary, and are confronted with serious work/life tradeoffs as they climb the corporate ladder Yet, relatively, little is known about how satisfied professional women are with their careers, particularly as they move beyond entry level into midcareer What are the critical factors that explain womens midcareer satisfaction? What factors explain differences among women in their midcareer satisfaction? Drawing on streams of research in gender and organizations, careers, sociology, and psychology, this paper begins to map out key demographic, career history, organizational, job, and stress factors proposed to explain professional women midcareer satisfaction. Directions for future research are highlighted.