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Who Gets to ‘Work Hard, Play Hard’? Gendering the Work–Life Balance Rhetoric in Canadian Tech Companies

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  • Amrita Hari

Abstract

This article is based on an exploratory study of the implicit gender norms in work–life balance (WLB) rhetoric in ten Canadian information and communication technologies (ICT) organizations. Interviews with human resources (HR) managers and preliminary company website analysis revealed a masculinist and heterosexist bias in the implementation of WLB practices, legitimized by the gender composition of the workforce and the demanding yet inherently rewarding nature of the ICT sector. Participants deliberately separated care (read: childcare) from WLB (read: flexible hours and working from home), reproducing the assumption that an ‘ordinary’ worker is a man with a female partner who assumes primary responsibility for the reproductive realm. The study concludes with: (i) recommendations to increase HR's role in providing functional support for WLB practices and (ii) three future directions for research. This article contributes to a general call in feminist scholarship to apply a gendered lens to WLB practices.

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  • Amrita Hari, 2017. "Who Gets to ‘Work Hard, Play Hard’? Gendering the Work–Life Balance Rhetoric in Canadian Tech Companies," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 99-114, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:24:y:2017:i:2:p:99-114
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.12146
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    7. Diane Coyle, 1999. "The Weightless World: Strategies for Managing the Digital Economy," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262531666, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Georgia‐Zozeta Miliopoulou & Ilias Kapareliotis, 2021. "The toll of success: Female leaders in the “women‐friendly” Greek advertising agencies," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 1741-1765, September.
    2. Dries Van Gasse & Dimitri Mortelmans, 2020. "Single Mothers’ Perspectives on the Combination of Motherhood and Work," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-19, May.

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