Washington: A new study has suggested that men seem to be more flexible when they requested to work from home or work in non-traditional hours for childcare related reasons as compared to women.
The study conducted by Furman University analyzed the reactions that both men and women received when making flexible work requests.
Christin Munsch, an assistant professor of sociology at Furman University, asserted that these results demonstrated how cultural notions of parenting influenced perceptions of people who requested flexible work and today, they thought of women's responsibilities as including paid labor and domestic obligations, but they still regarded breadwinning as men's primary responsibility and they felt grateful if men contribute in the realm of childcare or to other household tasks.
Munsch said that both men and women who requested to work from home or to work atypical hours to take care of a child were viewed as more respectable, likable, committed, and worthy of a promotion, and their requests were more supported than those who requested flexible work for reasons unrelated to childcare.
Munsch added that she was surprised because so much of the research talked about how parents and mothers in particular were discriminated against compared to their childless counterparts but when it came to flexible work, it seemed that engaging in childcare was seen as a more legitimate reason than other, non-childcare related reasons, like training for an endurance event or wanting to reduce your carbon footprint.
