Migration of demands between the public and private spheres from the point of view of gender relations: A study with nurses

Abstract

The attenuation of the public-private limits, typical of contemporaneity, favors the migration of demands between the professional and domestic spheres, called work-home permeability. This study seeks to analyze the permeability from a gender perspective, based on individual interviews with 42 nurses (18 men and 24 women), confronting them with the image of their respective use of time during a week. Having management positions was linked to greater demands in the professional field, making it difficult to reconcile with family life. The permeability between work and home, more common among women, reinforces inequality in the power relations, generating tensions that affect the work and family life, as well as the interaction between them. The dualistic approach in the analysis of the public and private spheres is criticized.