Time to care?:Gender perspectives on the 4-day work week

The paper presents empirical findings deriving from two recent research projects that study how implementation of a 4-day work week alters working life among employees in two Danish municipalities (Gleerup; Meldgaard Hansen; Lund, 2023). The model used in both cases is a so-called compressed work week, with 4 longer workdays followed by Friday as a new day off. Based on extensive qualitative data, collected from 2019-2023, this paper aims to explore the gendered dimensions and effects of such new work arrangements. <br/>The two cases form part of a current international labour market trend to test a 4 day work week (Autonomy 2023, Campbell 2023). Among other things, 4-day work weeks, are thought to improve work/life balance, creating more ‘free time’, and helping especially workers with caring responsibilities (e.g. for children or parents) achieve more time for these purposes. Some proponents of the 4-day week further argue that this working time model may increase gender equality in the workplace, and challenge gender norms more broadly, by promoting a more even distribution of unpaid domestic labour between men and women (e.g. Ibrahim &amp; Davidson, 2023). However, our studies illustrate that increased work/life balance is not an automatic effect of implementing a 4-day work week, and that gendered norms and practices continuously shape employees’ experiences and strategies in relation to the new working time model. <br/>Firstly, our analysis explores how experiences of work/life balance are affected, when a 4 day work week is implemented in a ‘5 day society’ (Travis 2010). We unfold how the new rhythms of the workplace create a new form of asynchrony, interfering with the rhythms of everyday life. And we examine how these changes are dealt with and evaluated differently, by especially employees with caring responsibilities. <br/>Secondly, we focus on the innovation that Friday as a new and permanent day off represents. How do men and women view and use the ‘free time’ that suddenly appears while partners work, and children are in schools and institutions? Does this new organisation of work promote more ‘gender-equal’ practices at work and at home, or do they rather increase existing experiences of time traps and guilt in a working life where timescapes (Adams 1998) are already too complex to navigate? <br/>We conclude by pointing out why gender perspectives on 4-day work weeks should be explored more carefully in future research, in order to grasp broader long-term implications. We propose some theoretical approaches that might stimulate new insights in the wake of the new experiences. <br/>