It is well-known that women do more unpaid labour — in the form of housework, childcare and the mental load of managing a household — than men. And now, a new study by Durham University Business School suggests that attempts to level the playing field in the workplace may actually further entrench the inequalities they face at home.

Menghan Shen, an MSc student at the University of Sheffield, and Dr Efpraxia Zamani, associate professor at Durham University Business School, found that women have much more difficulty separating their working lives and their family lives when they work from home then their male peers.

They found that women were much more likely to experience blurred boundaries between work and family life, often due to frequent distractions during work. This not only led to higher stress levels, but also negatively affected their productivity too. In contrast, home-working men reported being able to keep clear boundaries between their work and family time.

Despite remote work providing crucial flexibility for women to stay in work, it can still leave them vulnerable to work and life demands — and potentially exacerbate pre-existing stereotypes.

Read more: How employers can support stressed parents through the childcare crisis

“The greater flexibility that working from home provides has empowered women to bridge much of the gender gap in the workplace” says Zamani. “However, our findings show that there's still a need for more shared responsibilities in the family home if we are to achieve true equality in both work and family life, as women currently are taking on a similar burden in work, but a greater burden at home.”

Shouldering the lion’s share of responsibilities at home can take its toll. The more of this labour women do, the worse their mental health, according to a 2022 meta-analysis of 19 studies covering 70,310 globally, published in The Lancet Public Health.

It also shapes women’s professional lives, especially if their workplaces and homes are the same physical space. In a 2023 report by the European Institute for Gender Equality, the unequal share of paid and unpaid work was highlighted as a “root cause” of gender inequality in society and the labour market.

Claudine Reid MBE, a business psychologist and leadership coach, says for some remote-working women, there is a sense that everything is wrapped up in the same setting.

“This leads to a blurring of boundaries, especially as it is related to technology and time management,” she says. “It can lead to a lack of balance, a lack of self-care, blurred lines between personal and professional spaces, anxiety about work performance and career progression, as well as guilt about not being present enough for family.”

Read more: The rise of the 'hushed hybrid' workplace

However, the researchers are keen to point out that this doesn’t mean remote working is a bad idea. For many women, being able to work from home allows them to stay in the workforce at a time when many are being forced to quit because of a lack of flexibility and sky-high childcare costs. Remote work, as well as flexible hours, means women can pursue careers without compromising their health, wellbeing or caring responsibilities.

So how can women who work remotely put firm boundaries in place between their work and personal lives?

Have a separate workspace

Creating a separate physical workspace can be helpful, particularly if you can shut yourself away from the rest of the house to provide a quiet area to focus.

This can be more difficult in house-shares or small apartments, but co-working spaces — which you can rent per day or month — can be a good alternative.

Recreate a 'commute'

From train delays to the soaring cost of season tickets, there are few reasons to miss the daily commute. However, travelling to work can act as a buffer zone and allow mental separation between the demands of work and home. Reid recommends recreating a “commute” to prepare for your workday or wind-down afterwards.

Read more: Will the 'right to switch off' from work fix the burnout problem?

“For example when I worked from home during the pandemic, a 30 to 40 minute walk helped me to mentally get ready for work and on some evenings helped me to unplug from work,” she says. “It minimised the rushing around from one task to another and helped me feel more in control of my time and had a direct positive impact on my overall productivity, as well as my health.”

Employer support

It’s also important for employers to help women create distance between their personal and professional lives. They should make it clear that workers aren’t expected to be in communication out-of-hours, for example, by including their working hours in their email signatures.

“Managers should encourage and facilitate a culture where women can openly speak about switching off and the boundaries they have developed,” says Reid.

Finally, much of the discussion around workplace flexibility has centred on where work takes place. However, it can be helpful to think about when it happens instead. A lack of flexibility around working hours is one of the top three reasons respondents in Deloitte’s 2023 Women at Work survey gave for quitting their jobs.

So if being remote isn’t working for someone, it may help to think of other ways they can gain the flexibility they need.

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