Women Embrace Flexible Working, but Economists Say It Could Hurt Their Careers

Companies are increasingly offering remote and hybrid work arrangements as a perk to hire workers, particularly at larger firms, and women appear to be embracing the flexibility. A February survey of job seekers by hiring platform ZipRecruiter Inc. found that women were twice as likely as men, 26% versus 13%, to say they were only looking for remote work.

That increased flexibility could help retain women in the workforce and counter the sharp decline in female workers early in the pandemic. But it could also come with risks to career progression, according to some researchers.

Harvard University economist Claudia Goldin said a potential downside to women working from home more than men is that they could isolate themselves as a group. Dr. Goldin likened a scenario in which female employees work exclusively at home to that of part-time work, which economic studies have shown hurt workers’ wages, retirement savings and career prospects.

Similarly, Kweilin Ellingrud, a director at McKinsey Global Institute, the research arm of the consulting firm, said she fears that when workplaces reopen without restrictions, a self-selected group will return and enjoy increased visibility and networking. That group, largely men without caregiving responsibilities, could dominate promotions and relationship-building. That could put less-visible people with care responsibilities at a disadvantage.

“My hope is we see more of those million missing women come into the workforce, but my fear is that it will be slower and with negative implications on long-term career prospects,” she said.

Dr. Goldin, however, said workers—and mothers in particular—also stand to benefit from the increased flexibility. High-income jobs in finance, law, consulting and engineering that once demanded frequent travel and long hours are now easier for women to take, thanks to technology.

“The price of flexibility has gone down, if you can do an M&A from home or the office rather than flying to Japan, or sign a contract without having to go to Zurich,” Dr. Goldin said.

With job openings and worker turnover hovering near record levels, the onus is shifting to employers to find ways to hire and retain workers, and flexibility is one of them.

A recent survey by the Labor Department found that more than a third of employers increased telework because of the pandemic, and 60.2% expect to keep the increases permanent when the pandemic is over.

If asked to return to the workplace five days a week, nearly 40% of women with children under 18 would return and immediately start looking for a work-from-home job, according to a monthly survey of work-from-home arrangements by economists from the University of Chicago, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México and other colleges. That compared with just under a third of men. A further 7.3% of women with children under 18 said they would quit outright if asked to come back five days a week, even without another job lined up, nearly double the 3.8% of men, also with children under 18, who said the same.

Post-pandemic work arrangements could factor in determining how many Americans, especially women, can be drawn back into the labor force.

Women were harder hit by job losses at the start of the pandemic, including in the hospitality and retail sectors. Economists now are puzzling over the U.S. economy’s missing women, who have been slow to return even as schools largely went back to in-person learning and vaccines became available.

A recent survey by the jobs site Indeed found that the main factors keeping female unemployed workers from urgently searching for a job were employed partners and child care responsibilities.

The number of women aged 25 to 54 in the labor force has increased from pandemic lows, but was still about half a million below the pre-pandemic February 2020 level last month, according to the Labor Department. In contrast, more men were in the labor force last month than before the pandemic began.

If the U.S. were to increase its female labor-force participation rate to the levels of other developed economies, that could boost U.S. gross domestic product by almost $1 trillion over roughly the next decade, according to analysis by credit-ratings firm Moody’s Corp.

In some jobs, such as at a restaurant, remote work isn’t an option. And other employers think they are missing out on collaboration by not having workers gather in person. Still, worker productivity and wages have risen during the pandemic, according to the Labor Department.

“The fact that the economy is more productive does affect everybody, it increases wages and makes everyone more efficient,” said Jose Maria Barrero, one of the economists behind the survey. “The past two years proved flexibility can work, there’s no reason to schlep to office five days a week.”

Write to Harriet Torry at [email protected]