Making equality relevant: Gender, housework, and sick leave legitimacy in online interaction

In: Feminism & psychology: an international journal, Band 24, Heft 3, S. 295-313

Abstract

This article uses discursive psychology and conversation analysis to examine a Swedish online forum thread in which participants, who present as women on long-term sick leave, make gender equality relevant when discussing housework. Doing housework can challenge the legitimacy of the sick leave, and as a woman, one risks being categorized as a "housewife." Such a categorization can work to undermine sick leave legitimacy and is also problematic given norms of gender equality in Sweden. In the studied data, such inferences are managed by invoking a (male) partner in accounts for housework or by humorous and ironic gendered categorizations. The analysis focuses on how this is done in the fine details of the interaction, showing how sick leave legitimacy is managed within a normative framework of gender equality. The study provides a practically oriented approach to the gendered aspects of sick leave legitimacy and sheds light on the delicate interplay between gender equality and sick leave in everyday life.