Flexible Work Inequalities: Social Stratification, Work-Family Outcomes, and Contextual Variation

The expansion of flexible working arrangements (FWAs), including remote work, flexitime and compressed hours, has fundamentally reshaped the employment relationship. Yet access to, and returns from, flexible work are far from uniformly distributed. This session invites papers that examine how FWAs intersect with social stratification processes, with particular attention to how inequalities in flexible work reproduce or transform broader patterns of advantage and disadvantage. We welcome contributions addressing (1) stratified access to FWAs across occupational classes, education levels, gender, and parental status; (2) work-family outcomes associated with flexible work; and (3) contextual variation in these dynamics across national welfare state regimes, labour market institutions, or organisational settings. Papers employing comparative designs, whether cross-national or cross-organisational, are especially encouraged.