Flexible work is not feminine, it is universal

Katrine Marcal has written an(other!) incredibly insightful book, ‘Mother of Invention: How Good Ideas Get Ignored in an Economy Built for Men’.

In the book she talks about the invention of the motorcar. Back in the early twentieth century both petrol and electric cars were being developed. The petrol car was smelly and noisy. Starting it with a crank from the front was dangerous as well as hard work.

The electric car was quiet, clean and started from inside the cabin. It even had a roof to keep you dry!

Electric cars sound great, don’t you think?

So, why didn’t they catch on?

Electric cars were only marketed to (very wealthy) women. They were seen as a comfortable place that a woman could enjoy being with her friends. Not a real machine for a real man at all!

Petrol cars were seen as masculine because it was a proper machine that did heavy, smelly, dirty and often dangerous machine things.

However, it was only when the ‘feminine’ idea of an electric ignition was integrated into the petrol car that mass demand for cars really took off.

In her book, Katrine argues that what we often perceive as a feminine idea, is actually universal. 

Men don’t want to continually prove their masculinity every time they need to drive somewhere, nor should they have to. It is an example of masculinity that holds back all of us, regardless of gender.

This idea is much bigger than the electric versus petrol car rivalry. This is about the impact that our society’s gender perceptions can have on the ideas that get traction and those that don’t.

As a flexible work specialist, I started thinking about the potential impact that gender has had, and continues to have, on the uptake of flexible work.

Although flexibility is available to anyone for any reason here in New Zealand, it didn’t start out that way. As in so many other countries, flexible work was originally reserved for those trying to combine caring responsibilities with their work commitments. Those people were and still are disproportionately women. Even today, when we think of flexible workers, we often default to the image of a working mum juggling childcare with a career.

Don’t get me wrong, working mums have been the trailblazers of flexible work* and I think that needs to be acknowledged and celebrated. I am eternally grateful to the women who have come before me and paved the way for flexible work. They did it for all of us to have a clear way through though, not only for their future childbearing daughters. Why would we think so narrowly?

Like the electric cars, flexible work is a feminine idea that is actually universal. We don’t want anyone, regardless of gender, feeling that they have to prove their identity through the number of hours they work. But it looks like that’s a problem.

According to Stats NZ’s recent Household Labour Force Survey men are disproportionately working long hours.

Why does this matter? Long working hours are adding to our poor productivity performance as well as our high burnout figures, which I recently wrote about. Productivity and stress are two well researched areas that flexible work is known to significantly improve. It looks like men stand to benefit most from flexible work, if we take this perspective.

So, if flexible work can actually be of even more benefit to men than anyone else, what can we do to break down the idea that flexible work is for women and shift it to a universal idea?

Here are some ways to start thinking about it:

• TALK: Have regular, proactive, team-based discussions about how flex is going and what you want to try next. These are universal and inclusive discussions that everyone can rely on regardless of their identity or circumstances.

• SHARE: Whoever you are and whatever form of flex you use, tell people about it and make it obvious to others. You never know who you might inspire!

• LEAD: If you’re a leader, make flex a workforce priority and talk about why it matters on a regular basis. Time your messaging with the regular team-based conversations so you know you’re getting the message out there frequently.

*Shout out to the wonderful Annie Auerbach for the ‘working mums as trailblazers’ idea. I have borrowed your words and hopefully in the spirit you intended!