Resisting Long Working Hours: The Case of Spanish Female Tele-Workers

Abstract

Spain is considered to be one of the countries with the longest working days in the European Union. This produces several problems in the daily life of workers, especially in the work-life balance. Teleworking has been implemented as a possible solution. Based on qualitative research, our paper analyses the relation between telework, time and the work-life balance. Our work shows how female teleworkers produce new articulations of temporality in which space, materiality and agency acquire a new meaning. We conclude by affirming that they build what we will call a ‘gendered and resistance time’. This: a) illustrates how women who telework deploy systems of engagement involving different approaches in the way they relate to their temporal, spatial and material worlds; and b) defines a particular type of autonomy associated with teleworking that vindicates their condition as both female worker and mother, and denounces a patriarchal labour model designed for men.