Discourses of Work-Life Balance: Negotiating 'Genderblind' Terms in Organizations

TLDR

The article reviews debates on gender equality, work‑life balance, and flexible working, noting that while a generic female parent is often referenced, participants claim gender does not matter in their organization. The study examines how gender‑neutral discourses affect flexible workers and the backlash against policies perceived to favor women or parents. The authors compare policymakers’ and organizational discourses on flexible working with managers’ and employees’ internal conversations. The study finds that even with gender‑neutral official language, participants reframe debates with gendered assumptions, and this context can sustain gendered practices, with implications for organizations, policymakers, and feminist research.

Abstract

This article examines current debates about gender equality, work-life balance and flexible working. We contrast policymakers’ and organizational discourses of flexible working and work–life balance with managers’ and employees’ talk about these issues within their organizations. We show how, despite the increasingly gender-neutral language of the official discourses, in the data studied participants consistently reformulate the debates around gendered explanations and assumptions. For example, a ‘generic female parent’ is constructed in relation to work–life balance and flexible working yet participants routinely maintain that gender makes no difference within their organization. We consider the effects of these accounts; specifically the effect on those who take up flexible working, and the perceived backlash against policies viewed as favouring women or parents. We argue that the location of work–life balance and flexibility debates within a gender-neutral context can in practice result in maintaining or encouraging gendered practices within organizations. Implications of this for organizations, for policymakers and for feminist researchers are discussed.