While working at home has been a significant change for everyone across the business landscape, it proved to be life-changing for many women. Recent surveys suggest that over 50% of female workers prefer remote work or a primarily-remote hybrid model. Nearly 60% would consider finding a new job if ordered to return to onsite work full-time.
Here are just some of the reasons why:
More equitable discussions
With most meetings via video nowadays, modern etiquette calls for individuals to stay on ‘mute’ whenever they’re not speaking. This slight delay allows women to express themselves and be heard more fully.
Fewer social-club advantages
Women are typically less free than men to socialize after work — whether due to home, cultural, or safety concerns — and this can lead to missing out on bonding and opportunities. With everyone working from home, this particular inequity is substantially diminished.
Less pressure to look perfect
Men are expected to be tidy in the workplace simply. In contrast, women without coiffed hair, makeup, or nail polish can be judged ‘unprofessional.’ At home, many women feel liberated from the silent demand to appear picture-perfect throughout the entire eight-hour workday.
More flexibility for home care
Women still bear far too much of the burden of housework, which has also come to include supervising children under remote schooling. Remote work, at least, means that they can schedule tasks more fluidly instead of coming home from work only to do more work then.
Less ‘mommy politics’
Women are still asked, at job interviews, “What happens if you get pregnant?” “What will you do if your child is sick?” Thankfully, working from home has essentially turned these ‘issues’ — which have been used to keep women out of the fast track — into non-issues.
Why does all this matter? On top of being valuable in and of themselves, women constitute a significant segment of the workforce, especially in the customer experience (CX) field – statistically, 73% of contact center operators are women.
Any business that values CX delivery — to say, every business — needs to value their female employees and what they want and need in their working lives.
