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Although essential to social welfare, unpaid domestic and care work is an increasingly scarce resource in modern societies. Despite the growing need, many households refrain from outsourcing their domestic chores to the market. Simultaneously, the household service sector is mostly characterised by low-qualification, informal jobs lacking quality and professional standards. Drawing on transaction cost theory, the present study aims to examine how trust problems deriving from the quality and professionalisation of domestic services can be overcome by also exploring the role of state subsidies in this context.

A factorial survey experiment in Germany (N = 4024) causally explores the effect of state-subsidised service vouchers, quality signals and professionalisation on preferences and willingness-to-pay for domestic services. The data were analysed using multilevel modelling techniques.

Hypotheses are mostly confirmed: strong quality signals help overcome trust problems, thus facilitating the demand for household services. Further, service vouchers can generate better pay for domestic workers while simultaneously reducing the costs for households.

The relevance of professionalisation and quality of service as important determinants of domestic service demand is revealed. However, the experimental survey design involves hypothetical scenarios.

The analysis offers insights into how to stimulate demand for household services and increase formal employment in a sector currently largely characterised by informal arrangements. It further shows how social policies can help secure quality and foster professionalisation by shifting paid domestic work from the informal to the formal economy.

Compared to the years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, more workers today seemingly have choice over where, when and how they do their work. However, gender inequalities at work and at home persist, which may impact perceptions of choice. Thus, researchers must investigate the potential impact of gender and domestic responsibilities on perceptions of work-related options, including perceptions of workspace choice.

Using an original dataset with workers in North America, South America, Europe and Asia (N = 3,147), the authors conducted logistic regression analyses to explore whether workers felt they had a choice in where they do their work (workspace choice). In addition to gender, the authors considered the effect of domestic responsibilities (childcare and housework) on worker perceptions of workspace choice.

In the paper's initial regression, the authors found that men (OR: 1.24; 95%CI 1.04–1.48) as well as workers reporting that a partner was responsible for all or most of the housework (OR: 1.80; 95%CI 1.34–2.40) and childcare (OR 1.51; 95%CI 1.09–2.09) reported feeling a greater sense of workspace choice. Simultaneously, follow-up regression analyses found that women and men whose partners had a greater share of domestic responsibility had amplified perceptions of choice. However, surprisingly, men who claimed primary responsibility for domestic work also reported more choice over workspace.

Using an international sample, the authors explore gender inequities in worker perceptions of workspace choice. The authors' findings suggest that domestic responsibilities interact with gender in interesting ways, leading to differences in perceptions of choice in the post-pandemic workplace.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected women in unique gender-specific ways, particularly their traditional status as home managers. This study aims to draw on the role theory to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women's work–family balance during the lockdown.

The current COVID-19 pandemic, which has altered the ways in which we live and work, requires specific methodological tools to be understood. The authors, therefore, opted for an interpretive–constructivist and constructivist–phenomenologist approach. The dataset, thus, comprises of semi-structured interviews with 26 working women in the UK.

The findings illustrate how the COVID-19 lockdown has intensified British women's domestic workload and has, thus, caused unbridled role conflict, which has further been exacerbated by structural and interactional roles undertaken by women, especially during the lockdown. Remote working has contributed to women's role congestion and role conflict and poses severe challenges to role differentiation. Furthermore, we found that the lockdown has facilitated the rediscovery of family values and closeness, which is connected to the decline in juvenile delinquency and low crime rate that has resulted from the lockdown.

Through the lens of the role theory, this study concludes that the cohabitation of work and family duties within the domestic space undermines the ability to achieve work–family balance and role differentiation due to the occurrence of inter-role conflicts. This study enriches our understanding of the effect of remote working on female employees' work–family balance during the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

This article aims to present aspects related to women’s personal life and work illustrated in the TV series Most Beautiful Thing (Coisa Mais Linda, in Portuguese).

To this end, a film analysis was carried out considering the first season of the TV series Most Beautiful Thing, and to analyze the data, qualitative content analysis was used according to Bardin (2006).

The analysis showed that women’s struggles were and are distinct. While white women are fighting for the right to work - concomitantly reconciling their roles as mother, wife and housewife -, black and poor women fight for survival and dignity. As result, the film analysis showed that women’s search for a different social position is related to an inherent cultural aspect. It is relevant to mention herein that this struggle remains up to the present; such struggle is characterized by the occultation of the social role played by women.

As a limitation, there are few studies that address the theme of white and black women during the period reported in the series.

The main contribution of this article is the use of a filming product that portrays the 1950s, but bringing current discussions on the role of women in society, especially regarding the labor market, the patriarchal domination of men, prejudice, racial, and class discrimination.

The purpose of this paper is to describe how migration affects the care of older people in Italy.

The paper is based on anthropological fieldwork by one of the authors. This consisted of in-depth interviews with 20 “badanti” (migrant caregivers), with relatives of older people and with social workers in the city of Verona, Italy. It further included extensive study of secondary materials on the topic of migrant care of older people.

Badanti, Italian families and older people find themselves locked in an uneasy contract: badanti because they are exploited and often unable to find better, formal employment; Italian families because they are aware that they fail to render their moral duty to their aged parents and grandparents; and older people because they feel neglected and maltreated by their children. Yet the three parties also rely on each other to make the best of a precarious situation. The relationship between badanti and Italian elderly highlights the contradictions within Italian politics on care and migration. This case study shows how migrants help Italian families to hold on to the tradition of family care for ageing parents.

The small sample of badanti and families provides a detailed and profound insight of the complexity of elder care in Italy but does not allow generalisation for developments in the country as a whole.

Policy makers should take notice of the indispensability of informal migrant care in present day Italy.

The originality of the paper lies in the in-depth conversations with badanti and in the way in which elderly care is contextualised in the Italian tradition of care and present day politics.

This paper aims to explore the factors leading to the phenomenon of child trafficking in Egypt, how deeply it runs through the Egyptian society and evaluate the state’s efforts to combat it.

This research paper uses a case study method applied to the phenomenon of child trafficking in the Arab Republic of Egypt, and how the State is fighting it. The general policy approach is also used to clarify the State’s plans, programs and legislation in addressing the phenomenon of child trafficking, evaluate those policies and analyze the international documents.

The research paper concluded that child trafficking in Egypt represents a serious phenomenon, which stems from social, economic and cultural reasons. Even though the Egyptian Government exerts relentless efforts to fight this crime, all attempts have proven insufficient due to the lack of coordination between the concerned parties and low funds, in addition to the feeble services offered to the victims.

This study sheds light on a very perilous phenomenon in the Egyptian society; an international one with intricate magnitudes, upon which the State must concentrate more and eradicate it.

The study contributes to drawing the attention of decision makers in Egypt to the dangers of this phenomenon, and to the points of strength and weaknesses of the government’s efforts against it.

The aims of this study are to identify and analyse prevalent gender roles and the persistence of sexist stereotypes among teachers in training in Spain, to determine the reasons for them and suggest solutions for eradicating sexist prejudices.

A gender role questionnaire was administered to 1260 workers from 54 different professions who were enrolled on a postgraduate training course to qualify as secondary education teachers. The instrument contained six variables for both quantitative and qualitative analysis: professional work, family (looking after children), feelings and emotions, household chores, body image and free time.

Household chores, looking after children and gender roles linked to body image were those most indicated by both men and women. It is concluded that men participate little in bringing up children and household chores and that women continue to shoulder the responsibility. Both are concerned about their body image, but women have little self-acceptance of and satisfaction with their bodies and a stronger sense of being judged by how they look. Gender stereotypes persist, despite extensive legislation in Spain since 2004.

The study has limitations deriving from its choice of convenience sampling. Although it includes participants from six Spanish autonomous communities, the number from each region is not very high. Nevertheless, the sample is representative of almost all branches of knowledge (54 professions). Another limitation concerns the images used in the research instrument as a data collection strategy insofar, as they could not be obtained from a data bank specific to the research subject but instead had to be found in databases of general images. It can be inferred that a data collection strategy without any danger of bias would be to encourage each participant to design their own images, reflecting their perceptions and auto-perceptions of gender roles and stereotypes. The fact that there were no pre-existing studies using this type of research instrument in education sciences was a handicap for the investigation. Despite these methodological limitations, the results of the study may serve as a basis for implementing specific future actions originating from any area – but especially from the area of education – aimed at teaching people about equal roles in order to eliminate sexist sterotypes. This research was carried out as part of the Proyecto Diseño y Atención a las Oportunidades de Género en la Educación Superior (Project on Design and Gender Equality of Opportunities in Higher Education) funded by the Vicerrectorado de Cooperación al Desarrollo (Office for University Cooperation for Development) at the University of Alicante (Spain).

Spanish legislation has not been able to promote significant changes in the performance of traditional gender roles or to eliminate sexist stereotypes that perpetuate imbalances between men and women. The ideal and prevalent model of a Spanish woman is still that of a “self-sacrificing mother”, responsible for the household chores and childcare. She must combine this first job with a second profession, and, in addition, she must have a “desirable physical image”. The study puts forward various possible solutions for reducing and/or eradicating sexist attitudes with the participation of different social agents and in particular through education. The investigation could be of use when carrying out specific cross-sectional interventions on the subject of gender equality with students on postgraduate teacher training courses, for the purposes of encouraging the elimination of stereotypes and strengthening the capacity for critical judgement, positive self-concept and self-esteem.

The study may be useful for carrying out specific and transversal university training interventions in postgraduate teacher training on gender equality aimed at promoting the elimination of stereotypes, the strengthening of critical judgement capacity, positive self-concept and self-esteem.