Flexible working for all? How collective constructions by Austrian employers and employees perpetuate gendered inequalities

Abstract

Objective: This paper pursues the question as to how extended flexible working possibilities in the labor market are legitimized among employers and employees and whether they have potential to mitigate inequalities.
 Background: Persistent and increasing gendered inequalities in Austria are reflected in the unequal division of unpaid family work in parental couples and in men’s stable full-time employment while women increasingly work part-time. In recent years, employers have expanded flexible working possibilities for all employees, regardless of their gender, also in leading positions and especially for those with family responsibilities.
 Method: We conducted six focus groups and 16 semi-structured interviews with employers (n=30) and employees (n=25) from 29 contrasting companies across Austria. An in-depth reconstructive analysis facilitated our exploration of collective notions and concepts associated with flexible work and career opportunities.
 Results: The respondents constructed part-time and flexible work as a new norm strongly connected to women with (potential) children. At the same time, employers and employees legitimized that these women must be protected from penalties resulting from the ideal worker norm still in force and must be variously supported by employers. However, men – the partners of women they could support by making use of these options and taking over childcare – are not constructed as a target group.
 Conclusion: In a cultural context such as Austria, family-friendly flexible working opportunities perpetuate rather than level gendered inequalities, as men’s need for those opportunities do not emerge in the constructions. The lack thereof is neither explicitly addressed nor challenged.

Remote workers’ free associations with working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic in Austria: The interaction between children and gender

“…Women without children benefit mostly from more concentration when working from home, and men without children appreciate WFH as being practical and efficient. Thus, we conclude that organizations need to be aware about workers’ different (family) contexts and WFH needs to be re-framed as opportunity for job-crafting based on personal needs and preferences ( Wessels et al, 2019 ) for all groups of workers rather than promoting a narrow view of WFH as reconciliation between work and non-work demands for working mothers ( Schmidt, 2021 ).…”

“…Although the pure male breadwinner model has been subject to change and modernization ( Lott and Klenner, 2018 ), Austria is still characterized as a country with very traditional gender roles and highly gendered separation of work vs. non-work spheres (e.g., Buber-Ennser, 2015 ; Derndorfer et al, 2021 ). A recent qualitative study by Schmidt (2021) among Austrian employers and workforce members showed that respondents construct part-time and flexible work mainly as an option for women with (potential) children, but not for men. Indeed, working mothers commonly reduce working hours substantially as long as their child is dependent and/or at least reaches school age ( Buber-Ennser, 2015 ; OECD, 2015 ).…”

Needing a child to be fulfilled? The relevance of social norms around childbearing desires in collective orientations and individual meanings

“…Second, particularly in Western societies, mothers are generally expected to adhere to the "intensive" parenting ideal, which involves prioritizing their children's needs and investing substantial temporal and emotional resources into meeting them (Diabaté & Beringer, 2018;Ennis, 2014;Hays, 1996;. Third, mothers are expected to remain attractive and economically productive labor market participants as "Mamapreneurials" (Connell, 2009;Güney-Frahm, 2020;Schmidt, 2022;Wilson & Yochim, 2017), while fathers face challenges in balancing their constant responsibility to serve as the primary breadwinner (Schmidt, 2018;Schröder, 2018) with growing expectations that they also provide care. Increasing levels of time pressure, feelings of overwhelm, and feelings of guilt and regret are often reported by mothers (Donath, 2017;Heffernan & Stone, 2021;Ruckdeschel, 2015) and fathers (Meil et al, 2023;Wernhart et al, 2018), reflecting their worries about not fully meeting these expectations.…”

“…Explanations for demographic changes have thus considered revolutions in gender norms that not only reinforce women's rights to regulate their fertility and to participate in the labor force (Lesthaeghe, 2010), but also men's caregiving duties and investments, which are expected to lead to increasing fertility (Bernardi et al, 2015;Goldscheider et al, 2015;Lappegård et al, 2021;Preisner et al, 2020;Raybould & Sear, 2021;van Bavel et al, 2018). In Austria, however, the "gender revolution" has been replaced by a "parttime revolution": while fathers' increased participation in caregiving has stagnated at a low level, the spread of part-time work among mothers, particularly those with higher education, has led to a decline in the work volume of mothers (Berghammer, 2014;Riederer & Berghammer, 2020;Schmidt, 2022;. Thus, the second part of the gender revolution is on hold in Austria, as adopting nonnormative behavior and "swimming against the tide" is expected to reduce parents' well-being levels (Schmidt et al, 2019;Schröder, 2018;Suppes, 2020).…”

Paid Parental Leave in Correlation with Changing Gender Role Attitudes

“…Parents claiming a partnership bonus signal progress in promoting gender equality. However, from a long-term perspective, quantitative and qualitative data on women's employment in Austria show that women tend to reduce their paid working hours after becoming a parent (Statistics Austria 2021a;Schmidt 2021;Riederer and Berghammer 2019;Mauerer and Schmidt 2019;Kreimer 2018). Moreover, there is a gendered division of labor and employment in different branches of the Austrian economy, as certain occupations continue to be dominated by either women or men (Sardadvar 2021a(Sardadvar , 2021bScambor et al 2019).…”