Remote work can be a game-changer for gender equality – but companies need to adapt to ensure everyone benefits equally.
When it comes to the conversation around remote work and women’s progression in the workplace there are usually two opposing sides, with remote work as the great equaliser on one side and as a potential driver of greater inequality on the other.
The reality is that the potential for remote work to lead to greater gender equality is huge, but not without changes to the underlying norms and structures which permeate our society and our working lives.
If we proceed with business as usual, with remote work thrown into the mix, we will never fulfil the potential that remote work can offer to women and, as a result, to companies and the wider economy.
First, let’s talk about the benefits for women.
One of the biggest is flexibility – remote work gives working mothers with young children the flexibility to progress in the workplace while still balancing their caring responsibilities. Having the opportunity to stay and flourish in their careers during the years in which they are also raising their children has the potential to be truly transformative in terms of increasing women’s representation in leadership roles and closing the gender pay gap.
It can be argued that the shift to remote work during the pandemic has removed some of the stigma associated with balancing caring and working duties and has led to a greater appreciation of the importance and value of care work.
Suddenly care work, which has traditionally been invisible in the workplace, has become visible, with children barging in on Zoom meetings or employees having to ask for time off to manage home-schooling. And one of the positive side-effects of remote working has been the opportunity it has provided for fathers to take on more of the caring responsibilities in the home.
At Grow Remote we have spoken to women who say that they no longer have to worry about being stuck in a meeting which has run over time, watching the clock tick by, then racing to the creche before it closes.
“This is a very new landscape for employers and employees. Work with the teams to build processes and policies that are inclusive of everyone in the organisation. Be open, honest and flexible”
(Maggie, Senior Product Manager)
