Remote work is working for women. Why are companies ignoring that?
For the companies who touted flexibility and remote working as part of their DEI policies, but have now taken them away, what stories will they spin about how they support women?
As more companies backtrack on the remote work policies they adopted during the pandemic, and order people back to the office amid calls to regain so-called lost collaboration, productivity and morale, I’ve been collecting data to demonstrate the impact of remote work on women.
Because I see it in my own life, with remote work liberating me to do what I need to with and for my family (and self) without having to justify it to anyone. I see it around me with the many mums on the school run who have had to step back from work altogether because remote is either not an option or has been taken away. I see it in my mum friends who have had to have difficult conversations with their employers to protect the hybrid agreements they had in place that their bosses now want to reverse. I even know of one mum who has to get her own mum to her house early in the morning to help get her kids ready for school, so she can make the commute to London - the next best thing to there being two of her.
So with International Women’s Day just four weeks away, and this year’s theme being “Inspire Inclusion”, I’m already dreading what will no doubt be an influx of social media posts bigging up how much companies love and support women - while also turning a blind eye to how reversing remote work policies is a slap in the face to the balance and equality women thought they were finally on track to achieve.
I understand that fully remote work isn’t for everyone and can be difficult for younger generations who need to learn from older colleagues (and is indeed not possible in all jobs), but companies who were once proud to announce hybrid policies are slowly turning the temperature up, a bit like that old frog in the bathtub analogy. First it was, come to the office as you wish. Then it was one or two mandated days, to make connections. This has now spiralled into three and four days required in the office, until it disappears altogether.
Disturbingly, new research from expense management company Pleo has revealed that 41% of businesses are hauling employees back to the office - with the most common reason behind this being “other companies are doing the same” - and one in five UK businesses are even considering reducing pay for remote workers.
Photo by Marissa Grootes on Unsplash
That’s despite data showing that remote work policies are directly having a positive impact on the number of women rising to leadership roles. For example, numbers I have secured from Cimpress, parent of Vistaprint, show that in 2020, the year they implemented their remote first policy for the company’s office-based workers, women made up 20.7% of leadership roles in the business. In 2023, that grew to 31.4%.
Meanwhile, real estate company Zillow's transition to a more flexible workplace has seen female leadership numbers rise to 37% in 2021, up from 34% in 2019. And Remote.co's analysis of 128 remote or mostly remote companies showed that 19% had female CEOs, compared with 10.4% of Fortune 500 companies.
This study showed that mid-level women ended up with higher rates of promotion than mid-level men when remote working became more widely adopted in the tech industry during the pandemic. 22% of senior UK tech roles are now held by gender minorities, as remote work is now available to 47% of respondents in the Tech Talent Charter's survey last year. Tech darling Atlassian has even shared that their policy on remote work has seen numbers of women employees double in some regions.
And to prove the opposite trend, data from the 25th annual Nash Squared Digital Leadership Report found that a high number of mandated days in the office has had a negative impact on the proportion of female new hires in tech teams over the past two years. For companies without mandated in-office days, 28% of the tech team hired recently is female. This number drops to 22% at companies with a mandated five days in the office.
There's a real tug of war going on, as on the one hand, the number of layoffs happening across sectors would indicate companies have the upper hand and can order people to do what they want, as looking for a job is risky business right now - especially with the threat of AI replacing certain roles. But on the other hand, people have had a taste of working on their terms and don't want to lose that.
This isn’t just about working parents and mums, but also those with disabilities, visible or hidden; those struggling with menopause symptoms; and anyone who valued the time not spent commuting to dedicate to their personal lives. For the companies who touted flexibility and remote working as part of their diversity, equality and inclusion policies, how will they remain accountable now?