Le temps des conductrices de bus

Abstract

Taking off from a study we carried out with woman bus drivers, we analyze how working time and private time relate to each other. For them, as for most women, time at work and time off work cannot be completely separated. While psychologically the separation between different spheres of activity is something to which both men and women aspire, women do not actually demand it. They seem to know that the possibilities afforded by work are of a different nature than those of other sorts of activity. However, unlike men, women have not made that distinction a point of reference in their self-identity. We argue that the ability to distinguish the types of activity on the one hand, and on the other, the possibility to invest in each efficiently, can be a healthy choice. How? By creating the appropriate ways of separating the two, without losing the connection between them. The point is to try to conceive a position which is not contradictory, even if it may seem so. The experience of female bus drivers illustrates this point of view.

Keywords

• professional work
• domestic work
• professional gender
• domestic gender
• time at work
• time off work