1105: Parrying the Blow: How Indian Women Cope with Career Shocks (14172)

While research on career shocks has blossomed in recent years, there is concern that research on broad employee samples insufficiently accounts for the unique needs and concerns of particular employee groups. With only a nascent understanding of how career shocks impact the careers of women, this study explores how women cope with an array of different forms of career shocks, including motherhood, health scares, and the Covid-19 pandemic. From 33 semi-structured interviews with Indian working women, it was discovered that women use a combination of coping styles in responding to career shocks, including social support, agency, spirituality, and dissociation. Our inductive approach discovered novel coping strategies, including how women used spirituality as a meaning-making coping mechanism. This study contributes to careers literature by integrating personal and contextual factors in career continuation, identifying specific coping mechanisms to career shocks experienced by women, and expanding theoretical understanding of career coping strategies to understudied cultural contexts

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