The primary concern of this thesis is to understand why the "public-private dichotomy" has such resilience in contemporary Western society. Feminist reflection on the dichotomy reveals that at it serves the patriarchal purposes of misrepresenting, masking and devaluing women's lives. Teleworkers are individuals who work at home; they often opt for this work arrangement because they want to better integrate their public (or work) and private (or nonwork) spheres. Ironically, however, teleworkers reify the dichotomy between public and private in their daily lives. Through in-depth qualitative interviews with female and male teleworkers, I explore the mechanisms which reinforce this. These mechanisms include first, the sexual division of labour in the home and second, the gendered notion of "professionalism." Comparing female and male teleworkers I show how workers at home are physically removed from the office environment but work in a way that largely reproduces the "gendered professionalism" inherent in the organizational culture of this environment. Perceiving the opportunity to telework as a privilege, they have to legitimate this work arrangement by continuing to make sharp distinctions between public "work" and private "nonwork" which in turn reinforces the sexual division of labour in the home. These mechanisms keep the public-private dichotomy in place. I argue, however, that teleworkers interpret the dichotomy in a critical manner; through a "critique from within" they challenge the dichotomy. This challenge originates in their experiences that the best work (which they often call "real work") is carried out in the private sphere of the home. In fact, the office is identified as inappropriate for "real work" precisely because it is public. The dichotomy between public/work and private/nonwork begins to be prized open. I argue that the long term consequences of this critique will depend upon the guided entrenchment of telework within organizations.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.40199 |
| Date | January 1996 |
| Creators | Mirchandani, Kiran |
| Contributors | Tancred, Peta (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Sociology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001524736, proquestno: NN12437, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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