"Não é porque eu tô em casa, que eu consigo dar conta de tudo": o trabalho em home office entre mulheres na comunicação

Abstract

This research aims to investigate gender dynamics considering informalized and home office work in communication. The research problem that guides this investigation is: How are gender inequalities expressed in the field of communication based on the specific dynamics of informalized work and work from home? Thus, the main objective of the investigation is to analyze how gender inequality, in the context of informalized work, is expressed in the dynamics of work from home among female communication professionals in the city of Santa Maria (RS). In order to fulfill the proposed general objective, these are specific objectives: (i) Map the different concepts of work and discuss their (re)configuration with private life in home office; (ii) Discuss how informalization is related to the reproduction of the sexual division of labor and how these are articulated in the field of Communication; (iii) Identify the specificities of working at home in communication, considering a restructuring of the production routine; (iv) Verify how gender inequality is linked to the specificities identified in home work. The theoretical foundation is based on two axes that represent the dimensions of the object of study. The first of them, developed in the second chapter, aims to discuss the concept of work, within the scope of paid work in this research. In this sense, the panorama of work for and in communication is presented (Fígaro, 2009; 2011; 2018; Custódio, 2023; Costa, 2022; Haag et al, 2023) and flexible work (Antunes, 2008; 2009; Dal Rosso, 2017 ; Schwartz; Durrive, 2021). Subsequently, we discuss the relationship between work flexibility and gender relations and, later, how this relationship is expressed in the reconfiguration of private life, materialized in home working. To this end, contributions from sociology authors such as Hirata and Kergoat (2007), Federici (2019; 2021), Schwartz (2011), Dedecca (2004) and Carrasco (2005) are mainly used. To respond to the proposed research problem, the methodology of this investigation is carried out through qualitative data collection, along the lines of ethnography, organized into three phases: (1) exploratory research; (2) ethnography techniques (semi-structured interviews, field diary and work diary); and (3) data analysis and systematization. The study was carried out over nine months with four women with a Communications degree, residing in Santa Maria (RS) and region, who have an informal employment relationship and work entirely from home. To analyze the data obtained, three analytical categories were listed: conciliation with domestic work and care, conciliation with emotional relationships and free time and social relationships at work. The discussion of the results shows that territorial and bond flexibility is strategically appropriated by the interlocutors as a tool for reconciling different roles: paid worker, student, mother, daughter and partner. At the same time, the exhausting journey and the accumulation of responsibilities cause a notable physical and mental burden on the participants, especially those with children.