Women 'working away' from home in Australia

![CDATA[This is an introductory exploration of the experiences of women ‘working away’ from home in Australia. Data are from an ARC project investigating how working away is transforming Australian household life, including 70 interviews with industry stakeholders, workers and at-home partners. Working away entails overnight travel away from home for days or weeks at a time. There is cross-sector growth in these labour patterns, but impacts on personal and family wellbeing are not well understood. Notably, there is little research on the experiences of women working away. This paper focuses on this cohort in our sample (n=19). Our discussion concentrates on two sets of spatial experiences: at work and at home. Working away from home enables women to pursue desired careers and create distinct professional identities, but also brings challenges to emotional and physical health. Women also face challenges at home and in intimate relationships. Motherhood is a notable issue. For some, working away and mothering are incompatible, but others contest this claim and work away after motherhood. The findings contribute to scholarship on gender, work-related mobility and work/home relations. We encourage practical steps from companies, professional bodies and partners to help redress detrimental impacts on wellbeing and relationships.]]