Gender at work and at home : professional and parental identities in home-based telework.

Home-based telework creates a domain where, for mothers and fathers, both a professional and a parental identity might be appropriate. Yet when gendered discourses exist which suggest that women might find more legitimacy in the parental role and men, in the professional role, which of these roles will men and women in telework actually prioritise? My findings suggest that the consistent prioritisation of a singular role is not always possible or desirable for mothers and fathers in telework but that when neither the parental or professional role is prioritised the outcome might be described in terms of painful emotions, expressed by the women in my sample as guilt, and by the men as frustration.