Matias, M., Andrade, C. & Fontaine, A. M. (2012). The interplay of gender, work and family in Portuguese families. Work, Organization, Labour and Globalization, vol 6(1), 11-26. (original) (raw)
Related papers
The interplay of gender, work and family in Portuguese families
Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation, 2012
Portugal stands out in the European context of work and family relations for not fitting either into a traditional male breadwinner model or into a modern equitable model. Indeed, Portuguese society is characterised both by a high labour-market participation of both men and women and a gender-traditional division of domestic and caring work, where women do the majority of tasks. This paper reports on trends regarding the division of paid and unpaid labour over recent decades in Portugal. Challenging traditional sociological and demographic explanations, the scope of this review is to offer a psycho-social approach to the antecedents and outcomes of this division, as well as the processes individuals and families engage in to deal with multiple roles. Looking at the division of paid and unpaid labour through a gender lens, we conclude that, despite some changes in attitudes and practices, the display of gender roles still shapes both work and family relations in Portugal.
2015 Annual Report on Work and Family Developments in Portugal
This report intents to provide an overview about policy, research and publications (and data deriving from diverse institutions), that was produced in Portugal (in 2015), on the general framework of work and family relations. It takes a multidisciplinary approach and it aims to provide diverse types of information (research projects, good practices and institutional) highlighting the growing importance of the work and family relations in the country.
Unemployment and gender equality within the family in Portugal
ex aequo - Revista da Associação Portuguesa de Estudos sobre as Mulheres, 2015
This paper analyses the impact of unemployment on the gender division of household work. A sample of 643 dual full-time employed couples and 160 with an unemployed partner was considered. Variance analysis and chi-square tests were performed to analyse the differential impact of the spouses' employment status on the time devoted to domestic and parental work and on the division of household chores among partners. Results show that male unemployment increases men's participation in domestic work only on weekdays while female unemployment constrains women into domestic activities both on week and weekend days. Gender patterns of task division also showed to relate significantly to partners' employment status.
2009
In Portugal, feminine activity rate of working mother is high but remains structural asymmetries of responsibilities between women and men in familiar spheres. Based on quantitative and qualitative data results are presented that show that, in spite of a global feminization rate of 58,6%, women workers in State Administration remains with major responsibilities in familiar/private lives than men. Women in technical and leadership functions have the same patterns of familiar and domestic responsibilities but different patterns of work-time. Women in technical functions tend to have a strategy of work-family time balance, despite less career opportunities, while women in leadership functions adopt a supremacy of wok-time, just as men. Nevertheless, both women, in technical and leadership functions, feel a permanent conflict between career and family responsibilities, which is not felt by men. Gender roles define dominant models of work and family organisation which conduct to differen...
2000
Abstract: This research report aims to provide an overview of the key findings from the project 'Employment, Family and Community Activities: a New Balance for Women and Men in Portugal', the object of which was to examine family services. This involved, inter alia, drawing up an accurate picture of the role played by such services in Portugal in relation to job creation, reconciliation of family and working life and also in equal opportunities for women and men in the home, employment and social life in general.
Community, Work & Family, 2015
This article examines work-family reconciliation processes in order to understand if, over the course of marital life, women become socially closer or further away from their partner. Drawing on work-life interviews with highly qualified women in Portugal and Britain, we compare these processes in two societies with different historical and social backgrounds. Findings reveal three main configurations of social (in)equality which emerge during married life: growing inequality in favour of the man, in favour of the woman or equality between spouses. With due attention to the importance of national specific factors, we present three main conclusions. First, (in) equality is built up over the course of marital life and female strategies for reconciling family and work are at the core of this process. Second, the national specificities can mould the effects of cross-national gender mechanisms. Third, the intersection between cross-cultural phenomena such as conservative attitudes towards domestic work and national specificities (such as the availability of part-time options) is a rather complex process which needs further research.
Gender, work and family: balancing central dimensions in individuals' lives
revista.aps.pt
This article analyses the ways in which Portuguese women and men manage to balance different dimensions of their lives, namely participating in the labour market in relation to conjugality, domestic chores and parenthood. Our analysis is based on 83 in depth interviews applied to Portuguese couples living in conjugality, with at least one child and taking into account different social backgrounds as well relationships with different time spans. We argue that work has strong implications in people's lives, playing a positive role in personal identity, but also conditioning family time. An analysis on conjugality reveals that relationships aim to balance togetherness as a space of love and passion while preserving individuality and identity. Parenthood is a critical moment in these couples' lives, increasing men's and women's sense of identity but also restructuring their lives, albeit in different ways. For women parenthood often implies being pulled inside the household and postponing their work while men, on the contrary, tend to be pushed outside.
UNDOING GENDER INEQUALITIES: INSIGHTS FROM THE PORTUGUESE PERSPECTIVE
Insights into Regional Development 1(2): 85-98. , 2019
In Portugal and elsewhere in the world, the movement promoting gender equality has known advances and setbacks over the past century. While acknowledging and outlining the major favourable developments, this paper discusses mainly some tendencies in the opposite direction, in particular those that highlight and encourage, from an early age, differences between men and women, usually to the detriment of the latter. Examples in Portugal include the growing genderization of children's toys and books (which in one case has triggered a widely-mediatized polemic in September 2017) and the importance of the colours pink and blue. After childhood, differences persist regarding choice of study, professional activities, salary and domestic responsibilities. In this respect, sociological research in Portugal has observed a backlash in the position of women, in particular as an effect of the financial and economic crisis in the period Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Schouten, M.J. 2019. Undoing gender inequalities: insights from the Portuguese perspective, Insights into Regional Development 1(2): 85-98. https://doi.org/10.9770/ird.2019.1.2(1) JEL Classifications: J00 Additional disciplines (besides field of economics reflected in JEL classifications): sociology. * Parts of this text are spinoffs from research in the framework of the project Time allocation and Technology-A gender approach for the Portuguese context, funded by the FCT (PIHM/2008/37) and FEDER funds through the European Regional Development Fund COMPETE programme. INSIGHTS INTO REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT