How to Close a Gender Gap: Let Employees Control Their Schedules -
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The main reason for the gender gaps at work — why women are paid less, why they’re less likely to reach the top levels of companies, and why they’re more likely to stop working after having children — is employers’ expectation
that people spend long hours at their desks, research has shown.
“The only reason they’re not getting there is they’re going through this phase in their
life where working 16 hours at a single desk is incompatible with their life.”
Seventy percent of working mothers say having a flexible work schedule is extremely important to them, according to a Pew survey.
Yet when people get flexible work arrangements, they’re generally isolated cases — for longtime employees whom companies trust and don’t want to lose.
People can apply to jobs that let them work away from the office all the time or some of the time,
and at hours other than 9-to-5, part time or with minimal travel.
Women who have less education or are paid hourly wages have significantly less flexibility than professional women to begin with.
Social scientists call it the flexibility stigma, and it’s the reason that even when companies offer such policies, they’re not widely used.
Most of the employers are small companies, and it is aimed at an elite group of women — highly educated and on a leadership track.