**1. Introduction**

The transformations of all kinds that humanity is facing at an accelerated pace demand a revision of the models of femininity and masculinity in our culture. The participation and recognition of women in society have undergone an important evolution in recent years. Women have reached great goals and achieved great things that have implied personal perseverance considering the adverse conditions under which society functions. Although women have been massively incorporated into the labour market, in most cases, they continue to be responsible for tasks in the private sphere. This is due to the prevalence of a social order that reproduces the way in which society and its institutions are organised.

There are two pillars that sustain gender gaps: structures and culture. These elements respond to the historically established social order whose system of practises (habitus) institutes relations of inequality and subordination that function under the concentrating mechanisms of power and control. Society reproduces culture as a function of the social order, reinforces the roles assigned to men and women,

reproduces power structures, and normalises situations of discrimination, devaluation, disqualification, or even violence.

Since the 1950s, women have been massively integrated into the labour market, a major advance in their rights. However, this integration has been accompanied by negative conditions such as lower salaries for the same work, fewer opportunities for promotion and recognition, and glass ceilings that hinder professional careers. There have also been experiences of hostile, discriminatory, and sometimes even aggressive environments on the grounds of gender. What is not of particular interest in this analysis, however, is the difficulty of reconciling caring and working roles.

According to our social canons, it is women who should stay at home to ensure that things run smoothly and that the needs of all members of the household are met. How often do we hear that those who prioritise work are bad wives or mothers? Faced with this, women often feel guilty about having to sacrifice their presence at important moments in the lives of their families and homes. Some even decide to give up work to take care of the home, children, the sick or elderly relatives, i.e. women often sacrifice their economic needs or their professional aspirations to meet the needs of their loved ones.

For Bourdieu [1], the social order functions as a symbolic machine that tends to ratify domination, the sexual division of labour, and the strict distribution of activities assigned to each of the two sexes. For this reason, the health of working women is currently being seriously affected both physically and emotionally due to the accumulation of tensions that daily life generates, causing an ambivalent pressure marked by the disjunctions that women must face when assuming this double responsibility, especially when they do not have the support of other family members or institutional policies that seek to improve this reality.
