The Transition Continuum Model: Women Engineers Moving into Leadership

This paper reports on the findings from doctoral research which explored the lived experiences of women engineers who advanced to senior management and leadership roles in Australian technical organisations. Interviews informed by phenomenological and feminist perspectives, with twenty-two women engineers explored their conceptualisations of management and leadership and their experiences of the transition to manager and leader. Management and leadership functions were viewed as integral to, rather than distinct from, engineering work. The Transition Continuum Model explains the ongoing and often unresolved nature of women engineers’ transitions to manager and leader. Transitions occur over external, internal and temporal dimensions shaped by a triad of individual, relational and structural influences. The Transition Continuum Model demonstrates that the multiple dimensions of and influences on women’s experiences must be considered together as dynamic system. This paper discusses the main elements of the Transition Continuum Model and how this can help inform organisational practice aimed at increasing the number of women engineers in leadership roles in engineering organisations.