Chapter 5: Freedom or Constraint: Gendered Experiences and Practices of Portuguese Communication Industries Freelancers

This chapter aims to explore the gendered experiences and practices of Portuguese freelancers in communication industries. It derives from the project Well-being in comms industries from EUPRERA Project network Women in Public Relations (PR).

We refer to Acker's work on gendered organisations to comprehend how the components of the gender substructure perpetuating inequalities manifest in communication industries for freelancers. The analysis focuses on three main dimensions: job interactions and networking practices; work–life balance; and job well-being and gender subtext. Portugal, as a small EU country with low salaries, provides a social and political context to be studied in this feminised industry, with deep work–life gender inequalities together with a fear of precarity.

The study used a qualitative method with semi-structured interviews applied to two groups of participants selected by snowball sampling. The first group had active freelancers and the second contracted workers, some former freelancers from comms industries, to contrast their perceptions and experiences on freelancing work in their field.

Results show that perceptions of freelancing in Portugal mirror a duality between opportunities and challenges, and are gendered and generationally built. While job interactions and networking practices are more valued by younger professionals, work–life balance seems to benefit from perceived time flexibility. Job well-being is overall deemed positive, however, affected by the lack of stability, poor labour protection, unclear regulation and lack of state incentives, threats mostly felt by younger, and female freelancers. A gender subtext was perceived related to a glass wall that may affect women professional careers when engaging in lateral job expansion.