(Montreal) Teleworking imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic was more stressful for French women than for Quebec women, reveals a study led by a researcher from Laval University.
Quebecers, on the other hand, were more stressed by the situation than their French cousins, even if the latter seemed to have found distancing from their workplace less difficult.
“We compared France and Quebec because we have two national and societal contexts which are not the same in terms of supporting the role of women,” explained the head of the study, Professor Gaëlle Cachat-Rosset , from the faculty of administrative sciences at Laval University.
“We considered Quebec to be a more egalitarian context between men and women […] whereas in France, we considered that it was a more unequal context, more anchored in traditional female roles. »
The differences observed between Quebec and France therefore apparently result from the extent of inequalities that exist between men and women in each jurisdiction.
In France, for example, the study authors found that the stressor of family interference with work was particularly strong among women, possibly because traditional roles between men and women at the house still seem to be present.
Meanwhile, in Quebec, the greater stress seen among men is possibly due to their more active involvement at home. But since this sharing of family tasks has not necessarily reduced the stress of Quebec women, say the authors, this would imply an increase in the average stress level within the Quebec population teleworking during the pandemic.
Quebec has adopted, in recent decades, measures which have contributed to reducing the gaps between men and women, in particular by putting in place the necessary infrastructures to facilitate childcare, recalled the co-author of the study, Professor Alain Klarsfeld, of the French management school TBS Education.
“The gaps (between men and women in Quebec) have been reduced both in the world of work and in the non-work sphere, while in France, we have not had these laws,” commented Professor Klarsfeld to explain the gaps observed between the two sexes on each side of the Atlantic.
For example, he says, France has not yet equipped itself with a collective childcare structure comparable to Quebec CPEs, so “the preferred mode of care is the family, and in particular the mother; we find a distribution of more traditional gender roles.”
Organizational isolation
The French learn at a very young age to display, at least on the surface, a distance from their professional occupations, Professor Klarsfeld said, which could explain why the French have apparently been less stressed than Quebecers by a pandemic that has cut them off of their workplace.
Quebecers would therefore be more emotionally involved in their work than the French, an attitude that could be summarized by “Work to live” in France and “Live to work” in Quebec.
“Work is not an end in itself in France, it is not associated with personal fulfillment or personal development, which can much more be the case in Quebec culture,” said M.me Cachat-Rosset.
These results, say the authors of the study, are rich in lessons as we realize that teleworking is here to stay.
We assumed at a certain point that people would get bored of teleworking and want to return to the office, but almost four years later, we see that this is not at all the case, recalled Mme Cachat-Rosset.
“This is the new normal and it’s here to stay,” she added. So it is fundamental for us to learn lessons from this giant-scale experience (Editor’s note, the pandemic) to see what is important to put in place to support teleworking that is effective, but which is also a guarantee of well-being. being and which preserves each individual in their roles, in their expectations or in their relationship to work. »
The findings of this study were published by the journal New Technology, Work and Employment.