More than “just a mom”: Identity distancing and reactivation during re‐entry transitions

Yseult Freeney, Lisa van der Werff, Danna Greenberg, Teresa Hayden, Vera Costello and Alison Coleman

Gender, Work and Organization, 2025, vol. 32, issue 2, 610-633

Abstract: Re‐entering the workforce after a career interruption is a common work/family transition for women with caregiving responsibilities. Despite the frequency of these transitions over women's careers, extant scholarship has tended to be descriptive of the motives and barriers behind these transitions and has not built a more theoretically‐informed understanding of re‐entry transitions. In this study, we draw upon identity theory to explore women's subjective experiences of re‐entry transitions as we examine how women's identities evolve from being “just a mom” to a (re)activation of their work identity. Our findings highlight how, through a combination of psychological and relational mechanisms, women distance themselves from their stay‐at‐home identity and begin to reactivate a dormant or lingering work identity. Our work contributes to understanding of work/family transitions and identity theory as we theorize how this transition occurs and the mechanisms that support this identity transition process. We also call for changes in the practices of organizations and government agencies to better support this identity reactivation through improvements in processes related to supporting women in preparing for re‐entry following a career break and recruitment of women at this important transition point.

Date: 2025
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