“Women, Work and Family in the Digital Society: Italy and Portugal, 1960-2015”

The PhD project “Between work and private life: biographies of Italian and Portuguese women in the digital society” aims to describe and comprehend how Italian and Portuguese women run their daily activities between work and private life, considering we live in societies characterized by a massive diffusion of new information and communication technologies (ICT). The research aims to explore the construction of mobile pathways of autonomy, individualization and reflexivity between work and private lives of women, going beyond the traditional idea of "conciliation" and against the backdrop of intense diffusion of ICTs and weakening of the boundaries between the public and private spheres. Specifically, the study will be based on the representations and practices of employed women aged 25 to 49 of different professional groups and levels of education, who live as a couple and have children. It will be conducted through the production of semi-structured interviews and ethnographic method, in Rome and Lisbon. In order to contextualize the phenomenon, a first stage of the study will be dedicated to the collection and analysis of official statistics about Italian and Portuguese women in relation to work, family and ICT access and use. My presentation at the Third ISA Forum of Sociology will consist in a systematic comparison between Italy and Portugal, through a repertoire of indicators capturing behaviours and values about women and work, family, wellbeing, public policies, care, new media and ICT (sources: EUROSTAT, EVS, INE and ISTAT, 1960-2015). The decision to make a comparison between Italy and Portugal is built on a major assumption: Southern European countries, often portrayed as a whole, do not fit into a single model.