Women in mid-career often juggle many responsibilities, both professional and personal (O’Neil & Bilimoria, 2005; Pollock et al., 2023), leaving little time to review their career aspirations or to consider their satisfaction with the balance of career and life goals. Research demonstrates women in mid-career may explore their job or career options if their needs are not fulfilled leading to many talented women switching employers to pursue careers that better align with their goals (Mainiero & Gibson, 2018). This creates a pipeline problem for organisations now and in the future.

To increase the retention and promotion of women in organisations, there is a crucial need to respond to the call for future research by Lyness & Grotto, (2018) to explore ‘the most effective types of support and facilitators for counteracting the negative effects of gender-related barriers’. In this presentation Kylie will share the key findings from her research conducted in Australia, that explored coaching as a potential facilitator to support mid-career women in the workplace to manage life and career stage challenges.

Kylie has 20 years of international corporate experience in digital transformation, project management, change management, and operations management, with expertise in leading remote teams globally. She holds a level two organizational coaching certification from IECL and has experience coaching and mentoring teams.

Her professional interests include the future of work and the retention and advancement of women in the workplace. Kylie is currently undertaking a PhD at Edith Cowan University in Australia, focusing on gender diversity in the workplace.