Paper short abstract:

The paper explores processes of naturalization and denaturalization of gendered work and divisions of labour through a focus on (possible) tensions emerging between care work and professional success in the life-scripts of young women and men in the Czech Republic and Norway.

Paper long abstract:

Feminist anthropologists and sociologists of work have critiqued ideas about 'natural' economic orders and divisions of labour, and have also made strong effort to deconstruct and de-gender the care - work divide (Christensen and Syltevik 2013, Thelen 2007, Wærness 2000). However, in public debates about gendered work and women's labour maket participation, care is still often associated with the private sphere, the female and altruism, while work/production is associated with the public sphere, the male and economically based individualism. Building on recent feminist scholarship on the complex interconnections between care work and other forms of labour, and on research on globalization and the "flexibilization" of work, the paper explores processes of naturalization and denaturalization of gendered work and divisions of labour. More specifically, it examines (possible) tensions emerging between care work and professional success in the life-scripts of young women and men in the Czech Republic and Norway, two countries with a high level of female labour market participation but with distinctively different welfare policies and care-work regimes.