When Does One Cease to Be a Specialist

Most women tend to be more humble about their job expertise than men. This is what I've read in several studies. Whereas men exaggerate their skills, women point out their shortcomings. I, for one, would never call myself an expert, even though I worked on minority policy and security for several years following my first masters degree, read the complete works of Nietzsche twice (in english and german) when I started my PhD, and wrote my second master's thesis on HIV/AIDS and kept up-to-date on the topic for another year or two while working in development policy.  But ask me today what I'm a specialist in, and I wouldn't be able to answer, as I am not currently working. I would, from an outside perspective, position myself in a critical stage. Many of my work contacts are still in their positions, so I can do some useful name-dropping to compensate for my lack of up-to-date expertise knowledge. But in a year or so, I know this is unlikely to be the case. I think this is the greatest danger for stay-at-home moms who want to return into their established careers (and not do inspiring and gutsy things like start their own business): they no longer can answer essential job market questions on "what" and "whom" do you know, which are key(s)...