Teleworking: A curse or a blessing for gender equality and work-life balance?

The COVID-19 pandemic has fast-tracked the adoption of teleworking modalities by employers everywhere. Teleworking has permitted many companies and organisations to keep functioning, while shielding employees from exposure to the virus during nationwide lockdowns and other containment measures introduced by governments across the globe. As some parts of the world are transitioning to a form of normalcy, working from home seems to be destined to become a more common feature of corporate culture in the post-COVID-19 era, too. In the past months, a number of big companies have announced that they would allow employees to telework in a “hybrid format”, combining in-presence work with working from home. Governments have not remained idle either, with many of them adopting new laws in this domain or considering doing so. In such a context, it is legitimate to ask whether the wider adoption of teleworking might narrow the gender divide and help dismantle a corporate culture of “presenteeism” that penalises women, or if it will make gender inequalities worse. Who is more likely to take up teleworking in the future, women or men? What consequences will it have for their careers, training opportunities, remuneration and the gender pay gap? What will be the implications for gender equality at home? This article explores these issues and concludes that policies, both at the national and workplace level, matter. Depending on their design and implementation, they can help respond to workers’ demands for enhanced fl exibility, while challenging the unequal gender division of work at home. This would not only translate into greater gender equality but would also improve the wellbeing and productivity of all workers.