Many highly qualified women take a detour from their career paths because of personal responsibilities. But when they want to resume their jobs, they may find themselves stalled. Developing workplace policies and practices that help them get back on track is the focus of Sylvia Ann Hewlett’s new book, Off-Ramps and On-Ramps.

To attract talent, she says, companies must work harder to retain women professionals. Diversity increases a business’s competitive edge. Women achieve more than half of all professional and graduate degrees and will remain a significant portion of the workforce. Combine those facts with a tightening high-echelon labour market brought on by the retirement of baby boomers and the brain drain of departing foreign workers, and a talent void is opening up, Hewlett says. Yet finding on-ramps for talented “off-ramped” women who want to return to work can be difficult.