Flexible Enough? The Gender Gap and the Uptake of Flexible Work


Tech report


Sumayya Saleem, Annie Yazhuo Pan, Samantha Burns, Brad Seward, Elizabeth Dhuey
2021

DOI: https://hdl.handle.net/1807/111100

Cite

Cite

APA   Click to copy
Saleem, S., Pan, A. Y., Burns, S., Seward, B., & Dhuey, E. (2021). Flexible Enough? The Gender Gap and the Uptake of Flexible Work. https://doi.org/https://hdl.handle.net/1807/111100


Chicago/Turabian   Click to copy
Saleem, Sumayya, Annie Yazhuo Pan, Samantha Burns, Brad Seward, and Elizabeth Dhuey. Flexible Enough? The Gender Gap and the Uptake of Flexible Work, 2021.


MLA   Click to copy
Saleem, Sumayya, et al. Flexible Enough? The Gender Gap and the Uptake of Flexible Work. 2021, doi:https://hdl.handle.net/1807/111100.


BibTeX   Click to copy

@techreport{saleem2021a,
  title = {Flexible Enough? The Gender Gap and the Uptake of Flexible Work},
  year = {2021},
  doi = {https://hdl.handle.net/1807/111100},
  author = {Saleem, Sumayya and Pan, Annie Yazhuo and Burns, Samantha and Seward, Brad and Dhuey, Elizabeth}
}

Abstract

Flexible work arrangements (such as remote work, variable scheduling, variable work hours and shorter work weeks or hours) have been identified by researchers as a remedy to the pressures of traditional gender roles (such as child rearing and housekeeping) that make it harder for female workers to reach equity with their male counterparts. However, as our report notes, although women disproportionally bear the brunt of work/life responsibilities, they report having less flexibility than men in changing the rate at which they work, as well as their working hours. This lack of flexibility is more pronounced for women with young or several children. Traditionally these pressures have resulted in women being over-represented in the accommodation and food services industry. Unfortunately, this industry has also been hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Canada may therefore have an unprecedented opportunity to expand employment opportunities for women by taking advantage of the widespread changes to work arrangements as a result of COVID-19. Our report provides a roadmap for policymakers and employers with multiple recommendations to extend options for flexible work across all industries. These include having employers implement a “trust-based” model to evaluate their employees on their output instead their hours, and creating informal networking opportunities for remote workers.

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