Workforce exclusion | Do hybrid models reinforce stigmas against gender?

With 2022 edging closer to an end, it would be an understatement to say that this year’s agenda was overwhelmed with schedules and ideas for flexible working conditions across all businesses. However, with so many different plans for what the ‘best’ work model is, businesses have overlooked the line between exclusion and equality.

COVID-19 sparked the trend for many businesses to adopt remote working models, such as hybrid working. As a matter of fact, the hybrid working model is viewed by many as an opportunity for growth and enhancement for their employees and overall business. While this belief is true to an extent that the hybrid working model can bring opportunities and development, this model can also initiate challenges and create further problems, especially in terms of gender equality.

Deloitte’s report, titled ‘Women at Work’, revealed that 60% of women who work in hybrid working environments feel they have been excluded from meetings and interactions. These results uncover an inclination toward gender bias behaviour and reveal that women face stigmatisation in the workplace through exclusion through hybrid working settings as well.

A senior lecturer at the University of York and co-director of the Equal Parenting Project, Sarah Forbes expresses, “Flexible working risked reverting to pre-pandemic levels unless more men were persuaded to work from home.”