The study’s aim is to explore and explain the strategies working women without children use to manage their work-life balance. In order to do this, the study utilizes border theory to explain how the women handle the borders between the domains of their private life as well as their work. To complement this, the theory of doing gender is also utilized to explain why certain strategies are needed and used, as well as what obstacles the women may face and why. The study uses a qualitative approach and consists of seven interviews with working women over 30 who do not have children. The study showed that women without children primarily utilize the strategy of regulating their time borders in order to maintain a satisfactory work-life balance. Furthermore, their colleagues and managers served as important border keepers who ensured that the interviewees did not work more than they ought to. The results also showed that the interviewees did gender through fulfilling the ideal of the male worker, but that this ideal also was rejected and actively worked against. The ideal of the male worker was fulfilled primarily through adapting to expectations, both from managers and colleagues, of availability and priorities. These ideals acted as obstacles in the work towards a good work-life balance, and the women used strategies to reject the ideals and protect their private spheres. Furthermore, the results show that an absence of children does not necessarily mean that work-life balance is achieved more easily. Instead, a new set of challenges present themselves and require specific strategies for defining and maintaining borders.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-130840 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Eng, Astrid |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för samhällsstudier (SS) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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