Based on her survey of roughly 500  business school almuna, Cabrera pokes holes in belief that women mostly leave the workplace to care for children. (In her sample, only 35 percent cited taking care of kids as their only reason for opting out.) Rather, Cabrera suggests companies create on ramps and diversify employment opportunities for the 62 percent of women who said they’d opted out of a traditional career track because their interests and priorities had shifted.

This article was featured in the February 2011 issue of Working Mother Research Institute’s email newsletter, Working Mother Research Institute Essentials. To read additional stories from that issue, see the related content section below. To subscribe to Working Mother Research Institute Essentials, register on the newsletter page of this website.