Gender Relations at the Digitalised Workplace: The Interrelation Between Digitalisation, Gender, and Work

Abstract

Innovative leaps in digital technology alongside changing gender roles in society may open a window of opportunity to renegotiate gendered work patterns. The main question addressed in this article is the extent to which digitalisation holds the potential to reorganise gendered work relations, and if so why. First, we elaborate on the interrelation between work and gender in capitalist societies. Our main argument is that digitalisation is shifting the boundaries between paid and unpaid labour with far-reaching repercussions for women and men. Second, we will identify core digitalisation processes capable of overcoming or changing gendered work patterns. These include automation, the platform economy, and the interactive processes by which a value is assigned to work. We discuss these three processes and their implications for gender inequalities by means of examples based on current literature.

The intersectional precarity of platform cycle delivery workers

“…The platform economy can provide a source of income for marginalized groups, such as lowskilled or untrained women (Wood et al 2018). For them, and for women who perceive their main responsibility to be unpaid care work, this could be a gateway into the labor market as it offers them flexibility and task variety (Kohlrausch and Weber 2021). However, the transport and delivery sector has been historically male-dominated, and transport-related platforms are not an exception (Urzi Brancati et al 2019).…”

“…Not only platform economy reproduces the already existing disadvantages for women in the workplace (Kohlrausch and Weber 2021), but it exacerbates them, especially in vulnerable situations and/or intersectional contexts. Women with caring responsibilities who find themselves in situations of financial insecurity or poverty are profoundly affected by the consequences of precarious platform work cases.…”

Measuring the digital inclusion of women: a poset-based approach to the women in digital scoreboard

“…Technology is gendered, and digital technologies form part of the structure and performance of gender inequalities (Wajcman 2010 ; Wyatt 2008 ). Digitalisation holds the potential to reorganise gendered work relations, since the patterns of the gender division of labour are shaped, negotiated, or affected by digitalisation (Kohlrausch and Weber 2020 ). In fact, despite the measures implemented to enhance women’s digital skills and to increase the participation of women in the ICT workforce, studies show that gender disparities in digital proficiency are still more evident at the higher levels of specialisation.…”

Women’s Tailored Food Delivery Platform: The Case of a Small Company in Italy

“…The issue of care is another element raised in favour of platform work for women. Platform work could be a gateway to the labour market as it offers flexibility and the ability to schedule work according to personal burdens (Kohlrausch and Weber 2021). Beyond income, temporal flexibility could be an important motivator for people to pursue platform work (Schor and Vallas 2021;Berg et al 2018), and this is particularly true for women who bear the main responsibility for unpaid care work.…”