American men are eagerly returning to the office way faster than women workers — and it's not even remotely close. Here's why that's troubling

Family and household responsibilities

The BLS doesn't say for sure why more women continued to work remotely at a higher rate, but data shows they had plenty more work to do at home.

Women spent significantly more time performing unpaid household work on top of their day jobs, according to the BLS. On an average day, 22% of men did housework — such as cleaning or laundry — compared with 47% of women.

And in households with children under age 6, women spent on average more than twice as long each day (1.1 hours) providing physical child care (baths, preparing meals, etc.) as men (31 minutes).

Per the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the lack of affordable and accessible child care options further compounds this imbalance because it forces caretakers to navigate the complexities of balancing work and family responsibilities.

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Flexibility in the workplace

Job flexibility is also apparently significantly more important to women than men.

Survey data published late last year by YouGov shows 57% of women say flexible working hours were very important, while only 44% of men believe the same.

A May report from job search platform Glassdoor emphasizes exactly how important that flexibility was for women in the pandemic. Between early 2019 and 2023, researchers say most of the labor force gains can “effectively” be attributed to the increased workforce participation of women between the ages of 30 and 45 — especially women with college educations and those with children at home.

Glassdoor chief economist Aaron Terrazas says it’s “plausible” that this opened doors for between 800,000 and 1.3 million young women workers, “roughly on par with a year’s worth of legal immigration.” But Terrazas also notes fully-remote jobs are becoming scarcer, and may come with lower wages in the future, creating “a new generation of gender wage gaps.”

Despite its advantages, working remotely may come with other drawbacks as well. Being away from the office can mean limited access to company resources. It could also mean low visibility level from those in positions of power. Working in the same space as the boss increases the likelihood of one’s efforts being recognized and receiving credit for a job well done, according to workplace experts and Harvard Business Review contributors Mark Mortensen and Martine Haas.

— with files from Serah Louis

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