Gendered Work–life Ideologies Among IT Professionals

Abstract

The study investigates the discourses IT professionals use to produce work–life relations. We focus on work–life ideologies and explore the agencies produced, as well as whether and how they are gendered. Our data were collected in interviews with 24 women and men working in the IT industry in Finland. Our results show, first, that work–life relations were constructed discursively through two different work–life ideologies, and second, that these ideologies produced different gendered agencies in reconciling work with life. In our study, work–life talk produced different positions for women and men, which were influenced by gendered norms and social expectations. We conclude that gendered agencies in work-life relations may have negative implications for both women and men who work in the dynamic but male-dominated ITindustry.