Changing workscapes and their encroachment on private life: Do Montreal women perceive them differently from men?

Abstract

Paid work is increasingly distributed across multiple workplaces. In a representative survey of 1325 Montrealers, we associate each job with two workscapes (defined as the various places, including the home, from which work activities are conducted), one pre-COVID and one for July 2020. In doing so we extend the mainstream approach to urban economic geography – which has typically associated each job with a single workplace - and draw upon feminist economic geography to frame and interpret the analysis. Changes in workscape between February and July 2020 are examined. Women, who bear heavier household responsibilities, have tended to report more friction between paid work and private life: our results, however, indicate that Montreal women perceive less interference of workscape arrangements with private life than men do. This is unconnected with observed COVID-related changes in workscape. A possible explanation is that women have developed more capacity to cope with, or accept, the interference of paid work and private life. Gendered differences in perception may be exacerbated by the fact that men feel more pressure to maintain ‘ideal worker’ standards, which conflict with their growing aspiration to prioritize private life.