Home-Based Telework, Gender and the Public-Private Divide

While the blurring of boundaries between the public (office) and the private (home) spaces commenced much before the pandemic, the Covid-19 crisis has brough the related challenges to the forefront in the world of work. The anticipated rise in the prevalence of hybrid and remote working modes makes spatio-temporal analysis of work organisation highly relevant. One of the fundamental aspects that merits further reflection is the impact of ‘gendered spaces’ on home-based telework. Feminist theories on the relation between space and gender view the separation between the public sphere (attributed to masculinity, production, and professionalism) and the private sphere (attributed to femininity and family) a key element in reproducing gender inequality. The private sphere of the home has been traditionally associated with the unpaid labour of women, which has remained invisible and undervalued. Indeed, work conducted in the private sphere of the home in general has been considered as subordinate to work conducted in the public sphere, for example at offices, and often subject to no or circumscribed state regulation. This paper explores how this ‘traditional’ division of spaces impacts home-based teleworkers – the majority of whom are women – in terms of reduced visibility and career prospects, lack of information or professional and personal support, combined with long hours, work intensification and increased work-life balance conflicts associated with telework. While these issues as such are nothing new, the paper argues the proliferation of home-based telework during and after the pandemic should initiate changes in the physical, social, and legal landscape. The expansion of the workplace into the home offers opportunities to challenge societal ideas based on the binary division between public and private sphere, including the assumption that work performed in the private sphere is not ‘real work,’ and the reluctance of labour regulation to reach into the home. With the right policies in place, this could have positive transformative effects on perceptions of paid and unpaid work performed in the home