Swimming Ahead or Treading Water? Disaggregating the Career Trajectories of Women Self-Initiated Expatriates

This paper explores the career choices and trajectories of women self-initiated expatriates (SIEs). Extant research on these issues has tended to view women expatriates as a coherent group. We used a qualitative approach, involving semi-structured interviews with 51 women SIEs, to examine women's reasons to relocate, reasons for employment, past and current work as part of their overall career and future career plans. Drawing on literature on career theories, gender work segregation theory and women expatriates, we explore how national and individual factors affect women SIEs' career choices and career trajectories. In providing a more nuanced discussion of the careers of women SIEs, our key findings are that women's careers differ according to national grouping and marital status, with life stages and happenstance playing a more important role in women's careers than a planned career path.