Women and Transition: Reinventing Work and Life

Have you experienced childbirth, a geographic move, an empty nest, or a planned/unplanned exit from the workforce? Each of these events can trigger a transition. In this lecture, Linda Rossetti, a Harvard MBA, veteran technology start-up CEO, and author of the 2015 book Women and Transition: Reinventing Work and Life, discusses her thought-provoking conclusions about women’s transitions based upon her own transitions and on her research with more than 200 women who shared their transition experiences with her. Ms. Rossetti will introduce a framework for understanding the difference between change and transition; a summary of the surprising conclusions gathered from her research; and an interactive exercise that will engage all participants in the process of transitioning.

Ms. Rossetti’s research led her to conclude that transition is widely misunderstood in our society, and as a result the skill sets needed to navigate it are underdeveloped. “Too often women misinterpret the earliest stages of transition as failure instead of growth, a misperception that can lead women to stall, disengage or retreat from living the lives they imagine,” she states. She argues that the lack of awareness and understanding of transition is a powerful force for women, one that can introduce risk to women individually and to our society as a whole. Rossetti’s work is dedicated to reducing this risk by increasing women’s awareness of transition and by improving the capacity for transition in women everywhere.