Debate over the reduction of working time in the 1990s led to contradictions for women’s equal freedom to time, which we attempt to analyze. We focus on two specific dimensions of the debate: the absence of redistribution of productivity gains and the characteristics of the working sector that was at stake, that is, public services. We show that the first dimension today requires a discussion on how to separate income from work. As for the second dimension, we demonstrate how, in the context of public spending cuts, the debate over the reduction of working time penalizes women, in that these cuts lead to a privatization of both care and the production of social goods. We conclude in pinpointing the conditions to which reducing working time could enhance general, and specifically women’s, equality in the control of social times.