Homemakers: Investigating the experiences of self-employed women working from home

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the experiences of self-employed women working from home. Enabled by the internet and digital 'platform economy', women are engaging in new and re-emergent forms of home-based paid labour. The rise of the 'mumpreneur' and feminised notions of the 'side hustle' - young mothers and young women who are engaging in entrepreneurial pursuits, generally from home - is affecting the way in which women's work is conducted. Home is a space of traditionally domestic value, through unpaid activities such as care and nurturing. However, it is now a renewed site of economic value for women. This thesis examines women involved in home-based work through a case study of 11 women who work from home in Auckland and Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. I analyse the entrepreneurial practices of these women through home-based participant observation, 'workalong' interviews and focus groups. This data was coded, and thematic analysis utilised to examine these findings. Through this case study and engagements with literatures on feminist labour geography and cultural geography of home, the thesis draws attention to the relationship between the home and contemporary feminised work. I argue that the material and social relations occurring in the home affect women's experience of working from home. The material form of the home is often unsuited for workplace activities, resulting in women utilising incompatible spaces for work or changing their domestic surrounds to enhance productivity. Despite home-work being popularly lauded as a way to free women from the constraints of a traditional office, I contend that women are seeking out alternative spaces for work due to the incompatibility of work and their homespace. As the boundaries between home and work blur, women are burdened with occupying multiple roles in their homes. Women must become worker, mother, partner, homemaker, at the same time while in the home. These pressures result in stress and isolation from their own community networks. I show how these material and social relations in the home impact women's experience of home-work, and contribute to the increasingly blurred boundary between home and work.