Mothering and fathering in flexible working contexts

The literature on the relationship between work and family aims to understand the impacts that the flexible working hours and non-standard contracts have on the roles of motherhood and fatherhood. They usually focus on part-time contracts and on parental leave. There is, however, little attention from the Brazilian Social Sciences for this phenomenon.

Some changes in labour laws, in the 1990’s, allowed a profusion of non-standard labour contracts in Brazil. The sector of information technology (IT), in particular, has a significant amount of workers in non-standardized labour relations (illegal contracts, unregulated working-hour, for ex.). This means that basic labour rights, such as parental leave, are not guaranteed for them.

In this paper I intend to present the different concepts and practices of motherhood and fatherhood found in the interviews I have conducted with IT workers in the city of São Paulo. I intend to show how the unregulated productive labour relates to the reproductive labour, as well as how the different types of contracts, the working-hour regime and the home office practice impacts on the exercise of motherhood and fatherhood.