One of the highlights of working with emerging leaders is meeting professionals who, though they may be a generation or more younger than me, are so full of passion and knowledge that I recognize them as my teachers rather than the other way around.
Danielle Yoon is one of those engineers who inspire me. We connected last year at NSPECon when I attended Danielle’s presentation Growing Careers With Growing Families and learned about her passion for supporting engineers who are navigating family life while also growing their careers.
Our Industry Insights series explores how the engineering industry is evolving, and this is one of the big ways engineering is changing. More engineers than ever are juggling the demands of intense careers with the challenges of being a parent and/or caregiver.
As with all changes, leaders can be reactive or proactive. Danielle’s approach is both proactive and solutions -focused. So we asked her to share what she’s learned in her research, and, most importantly, how engineering leaders can apply these lessons to benefit their own teams and organizations.
Here’s our interview with Danielle:
Danielle, thanks for speaking with us. Tell us about your background and what’s interesting to you personally about supporting engineers who are in the stage of both growing their careers and their families.
My background is in civil engineering, but my career has evolved to include a focus on grants and funding—work that sits at the intersection of infrastructure, community impact, and strategic investment. Alongside my technical career, I’ve been actively involved with the National Society of Professional Engineers, where I’ve spent much of my time supporting and engaging young professionals as they navigate the early stages of their careers.
What makes this topic especially meaningful to me is that I’m living it in real time. I’m in a stage of life where the challenge of growing a career and growing a family isn’t theoretical—it’s my day-to-day reality. Like many others, I’ve had to navigate decisions around time, finances, personal values, career ambitions, childcare, school schedules, and the flexibility of my partner’s work. These decisions are complex, and they’re deeply personal.
One of the biggest takeaways I’ve had—both from my own experience and from watching friends and colleagues—is that there isn’t a single “right” way to do this. Different paths work for different people, and those paths can change over time.
What matters most is not prescribing a specific solution, but ensuring that the systems around us—within our workplaces and our profession—are designed to support a range of choices.
That’s what draws me to supporting engineers in this stage of life. If we can build better systems, policies, and cultures that acknowledge the realities of growing families, we not only support individuals—we strengthen the profession as a whole.
You’ve done a lot of research into the subject. What surprised you?
What surprised me most is how interconnected all of these challenges really are. We often talk about them in isolation—recruiting more young girls into engineering, retaining women in the profession, supporting working parents—but they’re all part of the same system.
One recurring pattern I kept coming back to is this cycle: women leave the industry, which makes it harder for the next generation to “see themselves” in engineering, which then impacts who enters the field in the first place. It’s not just a pipeline issue or a retention issue—it’s both, and they reinforce each other.
I was also struck by how much of the conversation around gender roles and career progression is shaped by systems rather than intentions. In How to Not Hate Your Husband After Having Kids, there’s a powerful observation: before having children, many millennial men and women say they expect to share childcare and household responsibilities equally. But after kids, workplace policies and cultural pressures often push families back into more traditional roles. Even when fathers have access to parental leave, many hesitate to take it due to career concerns or social stigma.
The data reinforces this. Research from the Boston College Center for Work and Family found that nearly three-quarters of fathers in large companies took a week or less off after their child was born, and some took no time at all. Without a standard leave, many are piecing together time with their newborns using vacation or personal days.
And zooming out even further, it’s hard to ignore the broader policy landscape. The United States remains one of the only countries that does not guarantee paid parental leave, which sets the tone for how organizations and individuals navigate these decisions.
What surprised me isn’t just any one of these facts—it’s how predictably they connect. We often frame these outcomes as personal choices, but when you look closer, they are heavily influenced by the systems people are operating within. That realization shifts the conversation from “What are individuals choosing?” to “What are we making possible?”
What do you think senior leaders of AEC firms need to know about the business benefits of supporting engineers with families?
Senior leaders must recognize that supporting engineers with families isn’t just a “nice to have”—it’s a strategic business decision with measurable returns.
There’s a growing body of evidence showing that policies like paid parental leave, flexible schedules, remote work, and childcare support directly impact retention, engagement, and productivity. For example, companies that offer on-site childcare have seen employee absences drop by 30% and turnover decrease by up to 60%. Paid parental leave reduces the likelihood of new mothers leaving the workforce by roughly a third, while remote work and flexibility significantly increase employee engagement and reduce the risk of attrition. In some cases, employer-sponsored childcare programs deliver a return on investment as high as 425%.
These aren’t abstract benefits—they address some of the most pressing challenges in the AEC industry. We consistently talk about workforce shortages, retention, and the need to bring more women into the profession. Supporting working parents is directly tied to all three.
At the same time, I think it’s important to acknowledge the tension leaders face. These investments can be difficult to balance against real operational demands, especially in project-based environments like AEC. But the cost of not addressing them—losing experienced engineers, struggling to recruit diverse talent, and facing ongoing turnover—is often much higher.
Another key point is that not all returns are immediate. Some of the most significant benefits—like improving the long-term retention of women in engineering and strengthening the talent pipeline—play out over years, not quarters. That requires a longer-term, more strategic mindset.
Ultimately, firms that treat this as a core business issue, rather than a peripheral HR initiative, are the ones that will be better positioned to attract, retain, and sustain the workforce they need for the future.
Obviously, specific policies are important, but there’s also a big “culture” component. Even if a firm’s policies are supportive, lack of support may show up in the culture of leadership, how teams are structured, or what’s viewed as acceptable or unacceptable. I’m curious if you could speak to both sides of this… What policies are most important for leadership to consider, in your opinion, and what company culture markers are most important?
You’re absolutely right—policies and culture have to work together. You can have all the right policies on paper, but if the culture doesn’t support them, they won’t be effective.
From a policy standpoint, the most important thing for leaders to recognize is that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. The idea of a “primary parent” isn’t fixed—it shifts over time based on career stage, family dynamics, and even societal expectations. On top of that, workforce demographics are changing. People are marrying later, having children later, and many are simultaneously caring for aging parents. That means we’re not just talking about working parents—we’re increasingly talking about the sandwich generation, and policies need to reflect that reality.
While policies can look different from one firm to another, the most effective ones tend to fall into a few key categories. Supportive workplace design—like hybrid work and flexible hours—gives employees more control over how they manage competing demands. Inclusive parental leave, especially when it’s non-gendered and paired with thoughtful “stay” and “return” strategies, helps normalize caregiving across the workforce. Career and skills development programs, including mentorship and career pathing, are critical to ensure that taking leave or working flexibly doesn’t stall long-term growth. And importantly, policies should be reinforced by clear leadership commitment—through anti-bias efforts and by recognizing caregiving realities in performance evaluations. There’s also value in creating peer networks and resource-sharing opportunities so employees don’t feel like they’re navigating these challenges alone.
Research supports these approaches, including studies like The Impact of Motherhood on Women’s Career Progression: A Scoping Review of Evidence-Based Interventions, which highlights the types of interventions that are most effective in supporting women’s careers over time.
But even the best policies can fall short if the culture doesn’t support them. One of the most important cultural indicators is simple: if you offer a benefit and employees aren’t using it, you have to ask why. If it’s not meeting a real need, it should be adjusted. But if employees are hesitant to use it, that points to a deeper cultural issue.
We also have to acknowledge the biases that still exist. Fathers can experience a “flexibility stigma,” where prioritizing family responsibilities is viewed as a lack of commitment. At the same time, research shows that mothers are often perceived as less committed or less competent after having children, while men may actually be viewed more favorably. These dynamics directly influence whether employees feel safe taking advantage of the policies available to them.
That’s why leadership behavior matters so much. Culture is set at the top. When senior leaders actively use benefits, model flexibility, and openly support employees in different life stages, it sends a clear signal about what is truly acceptable. Without that, even the strongest policies risk becoming underutilized—or worse, performative.
Ultimately, the goal isn’t just to offer support, but to create an environment where employees feel empowered to use it.
Imagine it’s 2036… What do you hope is different about the way the AEC industry navigates the support of professionals who are growing their careers and their families?
By 2036, I hope the AEC industry has fully embraced the idea that supporting professionals as they grow both their careers and their families is essential to the health of the profession. Right now, the connection between family support and outcomes like retention, diversity, and the engagement of experienced engineers is often overlooked—or dismissed as a generational preference. I hope that by 2036, this is no longer debated. Instead, we approach it with the engineering mindset we pride ourselves on: we identify the problem, design thoughtful solutions, test them, and refine based on results. In this future, firms actively implement policies and cultivate cultures that enable engineers to thrive in their careers without sacrificing their personal lives, keeping our profession strong, diverse, and resilient for decades to come.
Danielle is a Civil Engineer at Fishbeck. She has been nominated to the rank of National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) Fellow and Michigan Society of Professional Engineers (MSPE) Fellow, an honor awarded to those who have demonstrated exemplary service to their profession, the Society, and their community. You can connect with Danielle on LinkedIn.
Interested in learning more about how to develop your career as an AEC professional? Follow us on LinkedIn to be notified about our next event!
