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Resisting Patriarchal Cultures: The Case of Female Spanish Home-Based Teleworkers

Author

Listed:
  • Ana Gálvez

    (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain)

  • Francisco Tirado

    (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain)

  • Jose M Alcaraz

    (ESDES Lyon Business School, France; Munich Business School, Germany)

Abstract

This article explores the role of resistance as a micro-political practice carried out by female Spanish teleworkers. Drawing on a qualitative study focused on female workers in different cities in Spain, we conceive telework as a labour logic in which resistance is the cornerstone of meaning and subjectivity creation. Micro-practices of resistance are analysed following de Certeau’s notion of tactics and strategies, honing in on the limitations, restrictions, problems and difficulties faced by female teleworkers as they try to balance the different dimensions of their lives, namely family, work and everyday activities. The accounts given by the participants in our study reveal key tactics which ultimately serve to denounce prevailing work ideologies that uphold the patriarchy and promote false flexibility. These tactics allow teleworkers to define a subjectivity in which motherhood and telework are both absolutely relevant.

Suggested Citation

  • Ana Gálvez & Francisco Tirado & Jose M Alcaraz, 2021. "Resisting Patriarchal Cultures: The Case of Female Spanish Home-Based Teleworkers," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 35(2), pages 369-385, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:35:y:2021:i:2:p:369-385
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017020987390
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Penny Dick, 2015. "To See Ourselves As Others See Us? Incorporating the Constraining Role of Socio-Cultural Practices in the Theorization of Micropolitical Resistance," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 16-35, January.
    2. Patrizia Zanoni & Maddy Janssens, 2007. "Minority Employees Engaging with (Diversity) Management: An Analysis of Control, Agency, and Micro‐Emancipation," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(8), pages 1371-1397, December.
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    1. Alcalde-González, Verna & Gálvez Mozo, Ana & Valenzuela Bustos, Alan, 2021. "No clean rooms, no hotel business: Subversion tactics in Las Kellys’ struggle for dignity in hotel housekeeping," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    2. Miriam Marcén & Marina Morales, 2025. "The gender gap in working from home after the onset of COVID-19," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 1459-1486, December.
    3. Maryam Aldossari & Sara Chaudhry, 2024. "Gendered precarity in Saudi Arabia: Examining the state policies and patriarchal culture in the labor market," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(6), pages 2698-2716, November.

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