Women find it much harder than men to separate their work and family lives when working from home, according to a new study from Durham University Business School. Teleworking is often touted as a potential solution to gender inequality due to its flexibility, but these findings show that personal circumstances still impact women’s careers.
The aim of the study, conducted by Menghan Shen, MSc Information Management student at the University of Sheffield, and Dr Efpraxia Zamani, Associate Professor of Information Systems at Durham University Business School, was to understand the experiences of women and men working from home and how they set boundaries and avoid conflict between their work and personal lives.
Their results showed that women are much more likely to experience a blurring of the boundaries between work and family life – usually in the form of regular distractions while at work – which often increases women’s stress levels and reduces their productivity.
For men, however, the opposite was the case: for them, work was very often completely separate from their time with their family.
Interestingly, the researchers also found that women are much more likely to value being there for their families during work hours, while men are less likely to care about their family’s needs when they clash with their work schedule.
However, the researchers point out that these results do not necessarily mean that teleworking is a negative experience or inadvisable for women.
“The greater flexibility offered by working from home has enabled women to bridge much of the gender gap in the workplace,” says Dr Zamani. “However, our findings show that more shared responsibilities in the family household are still needed if we are to achieve true equality in work and family life, as women currently carry a similar burden at work but a greater one at home.”
The researchers emphasize that teleworking can have both positive and negative effects on employees, depending on their personal circumstances and the way their work is handled by their employers.
On one hand, working remotely can lead to alienation and a lack of confidence, resulting in an “out of sight, out of mind” mentality. On the other hand, working remotely can help employees improve their wellbeing and achieve a better work-life balance – if they also receive sufficient support.
To achieve this, researchers say, teleworkers should be given access to various tools and systems to manage boundaries in a way that supports their performance and productivity. For example, some teleworkers prefer more inclusive strategies such as allowing flexible work patterns to balance personal and family life and ensure work can be done in the most effective way.
