Flexible work and reconstruction of male identity: Men working home-office in Turkey

This study aims to discover the potential differences flexible work makes on the construction of male identities through men working home-office. Another purpose of the study is to make a contribution to critical masculinity studies literature, which is a developing field of research in Turkish social sciences. With a feminist point of view, theoretical framework is established on differentiation of paid work and provider role of men through insecure and a-tipic work forms brought out by flexible work. To realize the aim of the study, qualitative data collection and analysis techniques are used. Deep interviews were conducted in four countries with 23 male home-office employees to find out participants' thoughts and experiences about traditional male roles, job insecurity and gender equalities. Data analysis shows that paid work is still a constitutive element of building masculine identities, that job insecurity results in anxiety for future in that context and these men whose working and living spaces are the same, are more sharing regarding domestic work but still are not so far from traditional masculinity thinking patterns and in that context they construct an "in between" masculine identity.