The desynchronization of individual and conjugal time schedules, by no means new, is especially pronounced among employees of the transport industry. The HR files of an airline company, and life event history interviews conducted with flight attendants and pilots, shed light on the atypical family arrangements of cockpit and cabin crews. They also reveal the asymmetry of the representations characterizing female and male mobility. For men, mobility is presented as a natural part of their professional career, but also as necessary for a balanced family relationship; women’s “absence,” on the other hand, is negotiated, resulting in a temporary suspension—rather than a reversal—of dominant gender norms. The difficulties faced by highly mobile men are thus euphemized by the predominance of the hegemonic model of masculinity that governs work organization and gender relations in the private sphere.
Keywords
- Mobility
- Parenthood
- Conjugal Relationships
- Gender Relations
- Social Classes