Work – life balance in highly competitive labour markes: Peruvian law fimrs lawyers’ experience finding equlibrium

Gender inequality in the labour market presents a big problem for women; one of the reasons for this is that traditional ideas of the social division of labour are still embedded in the majority of the societies. Peru is not the exception, and in this paper I explore how these traditional ideas are also reproduce in the law firms’ labour market and specifically in the work life balance discourse and agreements entered by the female lawyers. In this sense, drawing on interviews and an auto ethnographic approach this research paper examines how the discourse of work life balance in Peruvian law firms underlies different gender assumptions regarding childcare responsibilities and the role of mothers and fathers within the labour market. Additionally, I look into how the strategies lawyers use to cope with childcare responsibilities are gendered and the effects that supposes for their careers.