Cuerpos en rendimiento: tecnologías, autoseguimiento y conciliación trabajo-familia en mujeres académicas de alto desempeño

Abstract

The growing incorporation of smart technologies into professional life has transformed how work, family, and performance are balanced, especially among high-performing academic women. This article examines the use of wearable technologies within this group, analyzing their impact on everyday experience, productivity, and work-family balance. It explores the tensions that arise from using wearable technologies to manage work-family reconciliation, based on the embodied experiences of high-performing academic women. Drawing on critical technology studies, the article problematizes how these tools, far from being neutral, reinforce bodily, emotional, and gender norms. Forty Chilean women who led FONDECYT Regular projects between 2020 and 2024 were interviewed. Data was collected through active interviews, which were then analyzed using content analysis. The findings argue that self-tracking can operate as a technology of control and self-demand, yet it also enables forms of reappropriation and resistance. The article advocates for a critical use of technology to understand reconciliation not as an individual issue, but as a structural tension that requires institutional and cultural change. © 2025 Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso. All rights reserved.