Swiss Journal of Sociology

Gendered Stereotypes on Working From Home (WFH) before and after the Pandemic

Regine Graml — 2025-04-15

Working from home (WFH) has received a lot of attention due to the Covid-19-related lockdown phases. Questions about the impact of WFH on careers and possible effects on women have not yet been sufficiently investigated. The results of the systematic literature review show, that the career prospects of employees who work from home depend on stereotypes and related stigmas within the working environment, which particularly affect women. Based on the results, a phase model of structural and cultural change for organizations with implications for women’s career prospects is developed.

Digital Presence Behavior

Abendroth Anja-Kristin — 2025-04-15

Thanks to digital technologies, employees can be “present” even when they are not working on site. This article proposes the concept of digital presence behavior with the theoretically derived facets of digital availability, visibility, pretense, multitasking and participation. Descriptive results based on representative data from employees working from home illustrate the ambivalence and inequalities associated with digital technologies and their use to establish digital presence.

An Investigation into Teleworking and its Relationships with Gender, Mobility, and Paid-Work-Life Balance

Jana Z'Rotz — 2025-04-15

This paper addresses gender differences in dealing with teleworking and their effects on everyday mobility by means of a cross-sectional survey. The results show gender-based differences in dealing with teleworking, attitudes to it and the use of time saved by not commuting. Frequent teleworking is associated with longer commuting times to main offices and accentuates gender differences. Research should address that teleworking is highly interwoven with the gendering of mobility and paid work-life balance.

Gender Inequality Through Gender-Blindness in Work Organizations?

Lucia M. Lanfranconi — 2025-04-15

The study, based on a 2021 survey of 31 family-friendly Swiss employers, highlights how a gender-blind equal-treatment approach during the Covid-19 pandemic unintentionally deepened gender inequality within the organizations. While employers recognize gender-specific risks, they largely see no obligation to address them. We recommend adopting a gender-conscious (equity) approach in designing family-friendly measures within organizations for future crises and beyond.

New Fathers – New Care – New Work

Hanna Haag — 2025-04-15

The article asks about the potential of a care perspective for New Work in science. Care work is largely largely eliminated in the meritocratic performance system of science. Based on qualitative data, the article shows that fathers in the science through their experiences in the COVID-19 pandemic deal with heteronormative invocations and develop new practices and a changed self-image as caring scientists.

(E)quality Workplaces for Women?

Alexandra Wrbka — 2025-04-15

Collaborative workspaces (CWS) are gaining popularity as alternatives to traditional offices, yet their gender dynamics remain underexplored. While CWS claim to offer a more egalitarian, open work atmosphere, prior research suggests workplaces are rarely gender-neutral. Drawing from ethnographic research of CWS in rural Austria including one women-focused, this contribution provides insights about existing gender dynamics and reveals how organizational structure and workspace design may influence gender inequalities, emphasising the importance of inclusive CWS in non-urban areas.

New (Sex) Work?

Lisa Katarina Stalder — 2025-04-15

With the rise of digital technologies, changing mobility regimes, and the transformation of social and sexual norms, the sex industry has become an employment sector for many. This article looks at the regulation of sex work in eleven Swiss cantons and a city since 1992 from a New Work perspective using Critical Frame Analysis. I argue that regulation only marginally considered these recent changes. It focussed on traditional forms of sex work associated with migrant women and failed to address material conditions in a diversifying industry.

Promoting Registration for Domestic Workers in Post-pandemic Argentina

Romina Denise Cutuli — 2025-04-15

This article evaluates the scope and limitations of efforts to include domestic workers in the social security and protection system in Argentina, focusing on the policies targeting the sector since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly Registradas, a program that subsidies the employment of domestic workers by middle-income employers. It shows that, while the politics implemented have improved social security coverage and labor conditions somewhat, three out of four workers continue to lack social protection, albeit to different degrees.

Risky Business

Aashika Ravi — 2025-04-15

Location-based digital platforms promise flexibility, autonomy, and supplemental income, but neo-liberal hustle culture shifts risks onto workers, exposing women to heightened sexist and sexual violence. By promoting freedom and entrepreneurship, these platforms perpetuate techno-masculinist notions of flexibility, ignoring women’s needs. Through narrative analysis of 10 female platform workers in India’s ridesharing and food delivery sectors, this study reveals how masculine ideas of flexibility and risk deepen the precarity of already precarious work..

Editorial

Roman Gibel — 2025-04-15

New Work – New Problems?

Lucia Lanfranconi — 2025-04-15

“New Work” practices, accelerated through the COVID-19 pandemic, offering opportunities for gender equity through flexible work arrangements, while posing risks, especially for those with caregiving duties. This Special Issue features nine contributions from the 2023 conference “New Work – New Problems?” The articles examine remote work through a gender lens, explore evolving gender norms within organizations, and assess whether new work forms lead to dependencies and precarity globally. Collectively, they advocate for rethinking “work” to achieve a more equitable, just, and sustainable future.