Telework as an Alternative to Encourage and Make Work and Family Responsibilities Harmonization easier

Abstract

In our current context, where "the male breadwinner and the woman caretaker" model that underlies the Labor Code due to its negative incidence in the materialization of equality of opportunity between female and male workers is being questioned, the development and use of atypical modalities of hiring can create new options to balance gender roles in labor matters. In fact, job-hiring modes, such as telework, may offer solutions that do not mean that women have to postpone their professional fulfillment if they choose maternity and create new opportunities for men to satisfy their growing interest to undertake their paternity in a more active way, disassociating themselves from their traditional role of mere breadwinners. This study attempts to evidence the way in which telework can contribute to create opportunities for the harmonization of work and family in order to contribute to the necessary definiteness of gender equity in the country.