‘Flexible narratives’ : Discursive Positionings of Gender and Identity in Precarious Times

Studies concerning the transformations of work have long stressed how flexible work has affected the lives and identity-setting processes of individuals. A salient aspect of the current changes consists of the gender issues concerning the reality of work and its representations. The aim of this paper is to stress gender-identitary positionings in the context of the stories of women and men in non-standard employment. The specific question that the article addresses is whether the increasing distance from the "standard" working model - concerning full-time long-term employment - is also being accompanied by a change in the prevailing gender models. In particular, the stories of women and men with non-standard and precarious jobs are presented, in order to show how, by means of narratives, gender models linked to precarious work are constructed.