The flexible working landscape is changing for women - but it's going to take time.
An American sociologist has just found that even old preconceptions and stigmas die hard when it comes to asking for a balance at work.
In a survey of nearly 700 people between the ages of 18 and 65, Professor Christin Munsch found respondents rated men who ask to work flexibly as much more committed to their work, more competent, more worthy of promotion and ultimately more likeable than equally qualified women who asked for the same.
Almost 70% said they would be “likely” or “very likely” to say yes to a dad’s request to work from home twice a week for child care reasons, compared with just 57% for mothers.
What is going on?
Munsch suggests that what's at play is how many of us consciously or subconsciously think men and women are supposed to act wildly colours our view. If a man is asking for flexible working, she says, he is seen as an all round good egg, bread winning and pulling his weight back at home.
But if it's a mother our expectations tell us that looking after the children should be a woman’s number one priority and as such there's no way a flexible working mum will actually get any work done outside of her maternal duties.
Perhaps it shouldn't surprise us that these historical expectations and pre judgments are devilishly hard to shake off, but what is for certain is that the more women who make job sharing and flexible working a perfectly functioning reality for them and their employers, the sooner these damaging misconceptions can be buried once and for all.
