How to support women in the remote workplace

The 2023 Women in the Workplace Report by McKinsey states that “women are more ambitious than before the pandemic—and flexibility is fueling that ambition”. The main driving force for flexibility in the workplace is remote work.

However, remote work not only offers women new chances and possibilities, but it also creates new challenges for female workers who often struggle to balance work and family duties.

Here is how organizations can enable women to thrive in remote workplaces.

Employees appreciate the freedom and flexibility that remote work offers. This holds true for both male and female professionals. However, statistics show that remote work is even more popular with women than with men.

For example, 78 percent of respondents in the latest McKinsey Women in the Workplace survey rated the opportunity to work remotely as the second most appreciated benefit, closely followed by having control over working hours (68 percent of respondents).

The development of the number of remote workers during the pandemic paints a similar picture. As data published by the United States Census Bureau shows, the share of remote workers tripled throughout the pandemic, with women making up the majority (51.4%) of home-based workers.

Also, women are more likely than men to apply for remote jobs. As data collected via LinkedIn shows, there was a consistent difference of four to five percentage points between male and female applicants for open remote positions between January 2021 and January 2023.

Remote work is known for offering several benefits to employees and employers, but it also creates challenges. This is especially the case for female workers for whom remote work can be a blessing and a curse at the same time.

The benefits of remote work for women

It is undeniable that remote work creates new opportunities for women. As shown by the McKinsey report “Women in the Workplace 2023”, around 20 percent of women declare that the flexibility that remote work offers has enabled them to keep their job without reducing their hours—which, otherwise, would have been necessary due to childcare duties and household work.

Another benefit that remote work holds for women is that it shields them from microaggressions to which they are often exposed when working on site. Microaggressions from managers and superiors can have a detrimental effect on women’s confidence and career advancement.

As a result, they are less likely to make courageous decisions in the workplace, advance new ideas, or voice their concerns. Not being physically present at the office reduces the exposure to such microaggressions and therefore helps women feel more safe on a psychological level.

The challenges of remote work for women

Despite the many benefits of remote and flexible work for women, it’s undeniable that remote and hybrid work models also pose new challenges for female employees. Several publications have gone as far as describing remote work as a “double-edged sword for women’s careers”, and for good reason.

While remote work makes it easier to balance work and family duties, it also makes it harder to set boundaries between work and personal life. If working time isn’t managed effectively, this can lead to a vicious circle of constantly switching between work and family obligations.

Another drawback of remote work that especially affects women is the increasing difficulty of leveraging job opportunities. Working remotely means being less visible within the company and hence being less likely to be considered for a promotion or for important assignments.

This is aggravated by the fact that women are generally more stigmatized than men when requesting flexible working arrangements. That’s because of the often-made false assumption that women choose remote work because they prioritize family over work.

Also, the virtual nature of remote work makes it harder to build personal relationships, which can further hurt the chances of female employees to advance in their career.

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In order to overcome the challenges remote work poses for women, organizations should implement additional policies that focus on supporting women in the digital workspace. There is no one-size-fits-all solution, but here are a few strategies that can help.

Establishing a culture of open communication

Poor workload management can have a negative impact on productivity and performance and lead to burnout in the long run. Since managing time effectively while balancing work and family duties is one of the main challenges women face when working remotely, organizations should promote open communication in the workplace. This can help encourage female employees to openly address workload issues and struggles with supervisors and managers.

Offering childcare stipends

Another way of helping female employees thrive in remote work is offering stipends to help employees pay for childcare. Working from home with a baby or a small child can be very challenging and distracting. Since women are traditionally more involved in childcare than their partners, childcare stipends can go a long way towards decreasing the burden of juggling work and maternal duties.

Promoting mental health and wellbeing

The challenges remote work throws at women can adversely affect their mental wellbeing. Therefore, organizations do well to support mental health among female employees. There are different approaches companies can take to promote mental wellbeing. They include offering health and wellbeing benefits, creating a welcoming work culture, and fostering honest communication.

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Making a strong case for equality in the workplace

Demonstrating commitment to equality and inclusion is an important step businesses can take to empower women in the digital workspace. There are different approaches businesses can follow to achieve this, including:

• Eliminating gender bias in hiring,

• Actively fighting stigmatization of women for what is seen as putting family before work, and

• Helping managers develop the skills they need to support female remote employees.

Creating flexible PTO policies

Flexible work shouldn’t mean that employees feel like they absolutely have to fit everything around work. Especially for female employees who are typically responsible for childcare, household, and more on top of their professional duties, this can create a situation where work and family duties are intertwined in a way that leaves no room for relaxing and switching off. Flexible PTO policies are a great way of supporting women in the workplace by helping them successfully combine childcare, household duties, and work.

Clearly communicating expectations around remote work

Effectively managing time and workload is easier when expectations are clear. Given that time and workload management can be a real struggle for women who work remotely, establishing clear guidelines on what is expected from employees who request flexible working arrangements can be very helpful.

Creating career opportunities for women

The best way of empowering women to follow their career ambitions is creating specific professional development paths for female employees while actively deconstructing gender bias that could prevent them from moving up the career ladder in a similar way like men. This could include introducing a fixed quota for women in management positions or female members of the executive board.