Women’s Participation in Digital Platforms: The Etsy Case in Bulgaria

Mira  Dobreva

doi:10.46324/PMP2401100

Mira Dobreva Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences https://orcid.org/0009-0000-3392-5737

DOI: https://doi.org/10.46324/PMP2401100

Keywords: platform economy, female labor, digital labor

Abstract

Many studies have examined the growth and impact of the platform economy, but none have investigated Bulgarian users’ involvement in Etsy, the largest online marketplace for the sale of unique handcrafted goods. Given the growing popularity of platforms as alternatives for labor and creative self-expression, as well as the high level of women's presence on the Etsy platform, this paper examines the particularities of women's participation on the digital platform and addresses characteristics of female labor, placing them in the context of Bulgarian female sellers. The results are based on responses from an online survey of female Etsy sellers in Bulgaria and describe the demographic profile of respondents, present their degree of financial dependence on the activity, and outline users’ estimation of the essential competencies required for successful performance on the platform. The findings of the study suggest that the platform is popular among women with certain financial comfort and that the respondents view their work on Etsy as a creative and recreational outlet rather than a dependable source of income.

References

Adkins, L. (2016). Contingent labor and the rewriting of the sexual contract. In L. Adkins, & M. Dever (Eds.), The Post-Fordist Sexual Contract, Working and Living in Contingency (pp. 1-28). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137495549_1

Aleksynska, M. (2021). Digital work in Eastern Europe: Overview of trends, outcomes, and policy responses (ILO Working Paper 32). ILO.

Anderson, C. (2006). The long tail: why the future of business is selling less or more. Hyperion.

Banks, M., & Milestone, K. (2010). Individualization, gender, and cultural work. Gender, Work & Organization, 18(1), 73–89. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0432.2010.00535.x

Daniels, A. K. (1987). Invisible work. Social Problems, 34(5), 403–415.

Duffy, B. (2015). The romance of work: gender and aspirational labor in the digital culture industries. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 19. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367877915572186

Duffy, B. E., & Pruchniewska, U. (2017). Gender and self-enterprise in the social media age: A digital double bind. Information, Communication & Society, 20(3), 436-450. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2017.1291703

EIGE and Eurofound. (2023). Gender differences in motivation to engage in platform work. Publications Office of the European Union. DOI 10.2839/052065 https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/en/publications/2023/gender-differences-motivation-engage-platform-work

Fuchs, C., & Sevignani, S. (2013). What is digital labour? What is digital work? What’s their difference? And why do these questions matter for understanding social media? TripleC, 11(2), 237-293. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31269/triplec.v11i2.461

Gruszka, K., & Böhm, M. (2022). Out of sight, out of mind? (In)visibility of/in platform-mediated work. New Media & Society, 24(8), 1852-1871. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444820977209

Hatton, E. (2017). Mechanisms of invisibility: rethinking the concept of invisible work. Work, Employment and Society, 31(2), 336-351. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017016674894

Huws, U. (2019). The hassle of housework: digitalization and the commodification of domestic labor. Feminist Review, 123(1), 8-23. https://doi.org/10.1177/0141778919879725

James, A. (2022). Women in the gig economy: feminising ‘digital labour’. Work in the Global

Economy, 2(1), 2-26. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1332/273241721X16448410652000

Jarrett, K. (2015). Feminism, labor, and digital media: The digital housewife. Routledge, Taylor et Francis Group.

Jourdain, A. (2021). From commodification to free labour: the gendered effects of marketplace platforms on work. In C. Suter, J. Cuvi, P. Balsiger, & M. Nedelcu (Eds.), The Future of Work (pp. 119-145). Seismo

Kirov, V. (2022). The digital transformation and the future of work: global trends, local consequences. St. Kliment Ohridski University Press.

Luckman, S. (2013). The aura of the analog in a digital age: women’s crafts, creative markets, and home-based labour after Etsy. Cultural Studies Review, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.5130/csr.v19i1.2585

McGowan, P., Redeker, C. L., Cooper, S. Y., & Greenan, K. (2012). Female entrepreneurship and the management of business and domestic roles: Motivations, expectations and realities. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development: An International Journal, 24(1-2), 53-72. https://doi.org/10.1080/08985626.2012.637351

Ollier-Malaterre, A., Jacobs, J. A., & Rothbard, N. P. (2019). Technology, work, and family: digital cultural capital and boundary management. Annual Review of Sociology, 45(1), 425-447. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-073018-022433

Piasna, A., Zwysen, W., & Drahokoupil, J. (2022). The platform economy in Europe: Results from the second ETUI internet and platform work survey (IPWS). ETUI Research Paper - Working Paper 2022.05. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4042629.

Poutanen, S., & Kovalainen, A. (2017). New economy, platform economy, and gender. In S. Poutanen, & A. Kovalainen (Eds), Gender and Innovation in the New Economy (pp.47-96). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52702-8_3

Pugh, A. (2015). The tumbleweed society: working and caring in an age of insecurity. Oxford University Press.

Rodríguez-Modroño, P., Pesole, A., & López-Igual, P. (2022). Assessing gender inequality in digital labour platforms in Europe. Internet Policy Review, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.14763/2022.1.1622

Razaq, L., Kolko, B., & Hsieh, G. (2022). Making crafting visible while rendering labor invisible on the Etsy platform. In Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) Conference, June 13–17, 2022, Virtual Event. ACM, New York. DOI:10.1145/3532106.3533573

Terranova, T. (2000). Free labor. Social Text, 18(2), 33–58. doi:10.1215/01642472-18-2_63-33

van Doorn, N. (2017). Platform labor: On the gendered and racialized exploitation of low-income service work in the 'on-demand' economy. Information, Communication & Society, 20(6), 898-914. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2017.1294194

Vallas, S., & Schor, J. (2020). What do platforms do? Understanding the gig economy. Annual Review of Sociology, 46. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-121919-054857

Webster, J., & Michailidou, M. (2018). Building gender perspectives in the analysis of virtual work. International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics, 14(1), 3-18. https://doi.org/10.1386/macp.14.1.3_2

Yordanova, G. (2020). Virtualniyat ofis: nova vuzmozhnost za balansa rabota–semeystvo v IKТ sektora v Bulgariya. [The virtual office: a new opportunity for work-family balance in the ICT sector in Bulgaria]. Izdatelstvo na BAN "Prof. Marin Drinov"