If time was a scarce resource in the Brody household, then so too was space; and it was over
this
issue that Pamand
Nicholas had more serious conflict. Pam had a dedicated home office at the front of the house which constituted17%
of the total floor space of the building; it was approximately3 x 4
metres wide with large windows that faced the sun and had three desks, a fax, computer and printer(526).
The office had been renovated and painted and had initially included a "really nice sofa" which Pam had removed because she was "tempted" to ')ust curl up there with a book"(272).
Pam recognised that the home-office was a desirable space in the house and that she and Nicholas shared a small and much less sunny bedroom in order for the space to be used in this way. This in itself was not the source of conflict between them but rather the strong defence Pam made of this "territory" in terms of resisting demands from Nicholas to also use it as a work space. Pam "defended" her "right" to work and the significance of her business, which was represented by her resistance to allowing the home office to be used by other people or for other activities. Pam would "not tolerate" Nicholas having a desk in
the
home office because it was her space and she was "doggedly selfish about it"(420).
She said:One of
the
bitterest forms that (this conflict has) taken, is over the physical space in which Nicholas was quite taken aback by the fact that I wasn't prepared to share it, atall, full
stop. But Iwasn 't,
I wasn't prepared to negotiate over this space, over the use of space, and I've relented a little bit now, but only because it's clearly established asmine
as opposed toours (509).
Pam's prioritisation of a dedicated space had developed as a concern during an earlier period when
she
had tried working from home while on maternity leave.Although she
livedshe found "hopeless" because "there was absolutely this sense of this not being serious because I had to sort of tidy it away all the time, and that if there was tomato ketchup all over the kitchen it just drove me crazy"
(555).
In response to this experience, Pam saw maintaining her work space as her own as a significant symbol of her "professionalism". Because of this she ''totally refused" to allow the home-office to be used as a guest room and insisted that guests stay in a front bedroom that needed to be accessed through locked doors from the verandah(535).
This situation was, Pam agreed, "quite inconvenient for everybody" , which was ''too bloody bad". Pam rejected the "concept of (her) work being interrupted by theidea
of mother-in-laws coming to stay" and felt that ''the physical territory (is) actually absolutely tied up with how seriously your work is taken". She and Nicholas fought about the home-office as though it were a "battleground"(54 1 )
where the dedicated work space was intimately entwined with Pam's self concept as a businesswoman, a symbol of her independence, and a means of resisting an image of herself as woman at home earning "pin money" .Despite the clarity of Pam's boundaries around her work space, her defence of this ''territory'' was not fully secured. Although Nicholas' had "given way" on trying to use the home-office as his after hours study, and "gracefully accepted" that he had "lost a particular battle", Pam still felt that she had to fight to maintain her exclusive claim to the room. She said:
One of the things that I'm amazed about is just how hard I've had to fight to retain that territory. Absolutely ... I feel like Nick has made umm, you know, it's like a little tidal wave that you know time and time again this great wave comes sort of rolling up the beach trying to erode that, it's like that clip at which you can actually feel something trying to sort of erode it. I think the issue over space is where you start to be marginalised and I'm just really adamant about it
(539).
Another issue with regard to space which was contentious in the Brody-Sainsbury household was the presence of clients in the house. There was a difference between Nicholas and Pam that resonated with a number of families in this study regarding home as a 'social centre' for the women and home as a 'sanctuary' and quiet retreat for the men. When I asked ''what does your home represent to you?", Pam replied:
It's quite different for Nicholas and I ... to him it's clearly a work refuge, he wants it to be something he can retreat to. For me it's kind of like a centre to which I like to have people come ... I am happiest living in a central city location where I have people dropping in and out, I like knowing that people feel it's a welcome place