Career-Stage Pathways of Professional Identity Development in Women Engineers: Implications for Training and Leadership Development

Abstract

This study examines how women engineers develop their professional identity across career stages and considers implications for education, training, and leadership development. Drawing on Social Cognitive Career Theory, the study explores how engineering identity, leadership identity, and organizational culture intersect within gendered workplace dynamics. Using a grounded theory approach, we conducted in‐depth interviews with 21 women engineers at different career stages and constructed stage-specific models of professional identity development based on reciprocal interactions among academic, organizational, personal, and sociocultural contexts. Findings indicate that professional identity, at the beginning of a career, is shaped primarily by academic preparation and early workplace experiences that establish initial feelings of competence and belonging but also trigger credibility challenges and imposter syndrome. As women move into managerial roles, heightened exposure to bias, stereotype threat, and caregiving demands produces identity conflicts that complicate the integration of engineering, leadership, and personal roles. At the senior level, participants demonstrate more consolidated professional identities characterized by resilience, clarity of purpose, and salient leadership; they mentor others, assume influential roles in their organizations, and advocate for structural and cultural change. Although the small, context-specific sample limits generalizability, the results suggest the need for tailored curricular, training, and leadership development interventions at each career stage to support women engineers’ identity formation, mitigate identity conflict, and strengthen inclusive leadership pathways in engineering.