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Narratives about Work and Family Life among Portuguese Academics
Author(s) -
Santos Gina Gaio
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
gender, work and organization
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.159
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1468-0432
pISSN - 0968-6673
DOI - 10.1111/gwao.12061
Subject(s) - narrative , portuguese , subordination (linguistics) , gender studies , family life , sociology , set (abstract data type) , dimension (graph theory) , work (physics) , psychology , linguistics , computer science , engineering , mechanical engineering , philosophy , pure mathematics , programming language , mathematics
A qualitative study conducted with Portuguese academics of both genders was devised to better understand the interface between work and family life. The academics seemed to position themselves along two different narratives. The first pointed to work and family as complementary, while the second described the subordination of one dimension to the other. The family life cycle, particularly parenthood experiences, illustrates the different narratives. Gender differences were more visible in the case of academics who were parents of young children, with women presenting a diverse set of micro‐narratives on motherhood. The findings also showed the need to design less standardized career models.