ABSTRACT
In home office work, a condition resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, demands from the professional and domestic spheres coincide in space, and may compete in terms of the workers’ time. In this condition, people work when everyone is at home, and domestic and care tasks are expanded given new demands. Having the sexual division of labor as a theoretical framework, this study analyzes the experience of home office of academics during the COVID-19 pandemic. The empirical material is based on online semi-structured interviews with teachers (four men and six women) of a federal university in Rio de Janeiro, RJ, in a heterosexual union, who have at least one child up to 10 years old. There is unanimity among teachers regarding the greater burden of domestic and care work upon women, who often take care of the house alone. The presence of children increases care time, including support to school activities. The breakdown of the delegation model (to the maid or nanny) highlights the unresolved conflicts within the family. The observed asymmetries express the socially produced gender system, which causes disadvantages to women, both in the field of health and of scientific production during the pandemic, expanding inequalities and inequities that precede the pandemic.
KEYWORDS:
gender; pandemic; home office; university teachers; housework