This case study examines the meanings and perceptions of women with regard to their experience in a transition-to-work program. A qualitative methodology was used to analyse 123 personal documents written between the years 1986 and 1991 by women at or near the end of an intensive bridging program. Analysis of the data revealed that, if provided with a supportive learning environment, women can make significant progress not only towards identifying their goals but in self-development. The study highlights the value of such programs as vehicles for personal and social change. The results of this study also demonstrate the need for continued support for transition programs and an acknowledgement of the untapped capabilities of women.

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The purpose of this study was to develop a questionnaire designed to obtain valid and reliable information which might contribute to an explanation as to why some Re-entry women make successful transitions from home to work while others do not. The questionnaire development entailed three phases, each building on the results of the previous phase. In the first phase, Re-entry project coordinators in British Columbia were surveyed to determine what variables gleaned from the literature they felt were most important to the transition process. The second phase involved generating questionnaire items for the variables resulting from the literature and validating the items by a panel of expert judges. The questionnaire was constructed of the resulting items. In the third phase empirical validation of the questionnaire was determined by the responses of 106 Re-entry women who were administered the questionnaire in the last quarter of their training program. Item and factor analyses were conducted on the responses and discriminant function analysis was employed to determine which variables distinguished between those women who made successful transitions and those who did not. Five main factors - a) attitude regarding appropriate job in the current labour market; b) marital status; c) self-esteem; d) educational attainment and e) support from mate were found to distinguish with a 7 6.4% accuracy rate, between women who made a transition within 56 days of completing their training program and those who did not. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

Although participation of Canadian women in the labour force has significantly increased in the past decade, and in turn the number of maternity leave claims, information is limited on actual employment behavior following maternity leave and the factors which influence this behavior. The purpose of this study was to examine the employment behavior following maternity leave for 313 women of varying occupations from a large metropolitan hospital in order to: isolate significant variables which influence this behavior, examine return rates and employment patterns for women who return to work, identify the major problems women experience upon their return to work, examine the experience of women with the current maternity leave legislation, obtain their opinions on whether flexible work policies encourage staff retention and finally, to develop a set of recommendations to assist organizations in achieving staff retention following maternity leave. Data respecting the positions of the women, their personal characteristics and their employment behavior following their leave were collected from personnel records. The dependent variables for the study were three distinct types of employment behavior: employees who terminated following their maternity leave, employees who terminated following their return to work and employees who remained employed at the hospital. There were nine independent variables which were tested as potential employment behavior influences namely level of education, age, organizational tenure, employment status, union/management affiliation, salary level, occupational level, number of previous maternity leaves and organizational division. The Chi Square test of Independence was run for six variables and the One Way Analysis of Variance for three variables. In-depth structured interviews were conducted with five women selected randomly from the sample in order to identify the major problems they encountered in returning to work as well as to obtain their opinions on the current maternity leave legislation. They were also questioned regarding the effectiveness of flexible work policies. Two of the variables tested were found to be significant employment behavior influences: type of union and organizational tenure. It was also found that the least flexible union had the highest termination rate. Although the majority of women returned to work and remained employed at the hospital, a high percentage transferred to part-time and casual employment. The interviews revealed that the major concerns women had were the need for more flexible work policies, an increase in part-time opportunities and child-care concerns including the need for on-site day care. All of the women interviewed felt that 18 weeks was an inadequate length of time for a maternity leave and some of the women wanted maternity benefits for their entire leave and not just 15 weeks. It was concluded from the results of the study that flexible work policies and organizational support systems encourage staff retention following maternity leave, it was recommended that in order for organizations to achieve staff retention following maternity leave that they must introduce flexible work policies and a specific staff retention plan. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

This study investigated the economic returns from higher education for re-entry women. Re-entry women are continually concerned with whether or not returning to college and acquiring a degree will result in increased earnings. While sufficient evidence exists to show that earnings increase as years of education increase, this study concluded that this may not hold true for re-entry women. As a result of prior work experience, these women may have relatively high earnings among the occupations that do not require college degrees only to acquire entry-level positions upon completion of the college degree. There may be little or no difference between the salaries of these two work levels. This study was directed by the major research question -- "Does the age at the time females obtain four-year degrees affect their subsequent earnings?" and used path analysis to test a model of the direct and indirect effects of age at the time the degree is received on earnings while holding constant the effects of other variables. These analyses included and accounted for labor market, human capital and socioeconomic variables, prior earnings, race, prior work experience, college major and occupation, all of which may affect earnings. The findings did not support the null hypothesis that earnings for re-entry women will increase after the receipt of the college degree. The findings also indicated that earnings before the degree had a significant effect on earnings after the degree. / Ph. D.