Work-Life Challenges for Men and Women in the Education Sector in Québec (Canada); Their Evolution over the Lifecourse

Research on work-life balance issues has often centered mainly on early childhood responsibilities. However, over the years, some researchers have started to reconsider and try to bring the attention to work-life issues over the lifecourse, taking into account how things change over time, and into retirement eventually.  In our recent research we have looked at work-life issues over the lifecourse in a few sectors. One sector we have concentrated on is education, including of course teachers, but also professionals and technical/support groups. To this day, researchers have mainly concentrated on the beginning of the teaching career, and end of careers have been less studied. In Québec, in relation with the demographic ageing of the population as well as the introduction of recent public policies to maintain workers longer in the labour market, older workers are more and more faced with work-life balance issues and organizations should be taking these into account. Our presentation will center on the specificities of end of careers for education workers as concerns the articulation of social times and work-life balance. Semi-directed interviews have been conducted with male and female teachers (24), directors (18) professionals (20) and support groups (20)  of 50 years and over, belonging to different school levels (primary and secondary schools).

Our research shows that promotion and career mobility over the lifecourse comes later for women as it requires that family responsibilities be more or less behind them for them to be able to concentrate on their career. Differences may be a little stronger in this sector than others, although women generally bear the burden of family responsibilities. Over time, it appears possible to have more control over one’s working hours and place of work, especially for professionals and teachers. Many aspire to working time arrangements and working time reduction for the second part of their career, before retirement. However, our research demonstrates that new family responsibilities, more specific to older workers, contribute to reinforce the gendered inequalities observed in previous periods of the career, as these older workers are often called upon to help with the grandchildren, but also may have to take care of their own aging parents, thus becoming caregivers. Our paper will develop on the views of the various groups, how they see the possible reconciliation of their second part of career aspirations and the new family or caring responsibilities that fall upon them.