Engineering Sustainable Careers: Exploring Parenthood Timing Factors among Engineers in Australia

Abstract The sustainability of qualified female engineers’ careers in Australia is challenged at the critical childbearing age, with evidence pointing towards masculine professional cultures and a specter of reproductive choices as potential risk factors for low fertility among female engineers in the profession. In this paper, factors influencing decisions on the timing of parenthood for both female and male engineers in Australia are explored across different personal life stages within their professional careers. This study employed a qualitative method of semi-structured interviews with a total of twenty female and male engineers in Australia. The interviews harnessed an interactive component where participants were asked to graphically time-map their engineering career while retrospectively reflecting on their parental aspirations and the factors that influenced them at different periods of their journey. Factors that accelerate or delay reproductive timing were identified with respect to the time period when the factors were most salient. The study identified a multilayer of factors, namely: (a) individual; (b) inner circle, such as spouse and family; (c) organizational; and (d) profession/industry — that critically influence decisions on the timing of parenthood. Most participants identified age and individual or their spouse's economic and career securities as crucial factors. At the organizational and industrial level, hypercompetitive organizational culture, i.e., the shared drive for results rather than development; the business nature of the organization, i.e., project-centric versus continuous operation work structure, and its geographical presence affected both male and female engineers’ decisions and may delay their reproductive timing. The study identified several delaying factors that were prominent among female engineers and absent in their male counterparts. These included: professional identity, hostile work environments towards women, especially when experienced at an early stage of their career, absence of role-models, and the fast-moving skills and knowledges in the engineering profession and/or industry attached to a fear of skill obsolescence. This study's significance lies in exploring the uncharted topic of differences in reproductive choices and the institutional environment where they take place. The study theorizes these differences as a developmental process tailoring comprehensive organizational strategies for people at various life stages, thereby enhancing their career sustainability in the profession.