According to InHerSight data, 92.5% of women are searching for remote work, and of InHerSight’s must-haves, the ability to work from home is the top pick year after year. We don’t get sweeping stats like that unless we ask our audience something depressing, like “Have you ever worked in a toxic work environment?” or “Have you ever experienced a pay disparity?”
It’s easy to conclude that remote work is the answer to every workplace challenge women face. But the more I’ve covered work, the more I think remote work is only one expression of something even more valuable: flexibility.
Years ago, when our platform began exploring the impact of intersectionality on women’s careers, we started publishing more content on disability. As an editor, it was my first time covering the topic in depth. I still wouldn’t call myself an expert—it’s hard to become one on someone else’s lived experience—but one theme kept surfacing.
Experts told us people with disabilities might need elasticity in all kinds of ways: more time for transportation and appointments, different approaches to certain assignments, hybrid options, or extra paid time off without judgment. I remember thinking, Hmm, I’ve been thinking about flexibility mostly in terms of hours and location. There’s more to it than that.
Working from home isn’t the whole solution.
Then I noticed the same pattern again when we began covering neurodiversity. Here, I learned that flexibility means something different from person to person: more breaks, standing desks, opting in or out of group work, the use of fidget spinners or noise-cancelling headphones, days off to decompress, and other accommodations. Once again, experts called for managers to be open-minded. Flexible.
After that, I started seeing the same theme everywhere.
We covered parents, who needed to leave at 4 p.m. for school pickup and log back on after bathtime. We covered migraines, and the 86% of women who say they experience them (see? The depressing topics always sweep) told us they needed flexibility in their space, lighting, and schedules. We covered menopause, and experts recommended temperature flexibility to accommodate hot flashes. We covered veterans, whose needs ranged from time for VA appointments to flexibility during the transition back to civilian work.
Then last month we asked what might be the clearest test yet: Would you rather have a higher salary or a more flexible schedule?
Sixty-eight percent of women chose flexibility.
“Flexibility reduces my stress in attempting to arrive on time but not too early and not a minute too late. I live in an overpopulated area with no public transportation and constant road construction, so traffic is unpredictable and stressful, and flexibility is valuable in this environment.”
“Salary was more important five years ago. Now, salary and flexibility are equally important to me, but when trying to even decide which jobs to apply to, I pick the ones with more flexibility. Even when the pay is really high, I won't apply somewhere that wants me to work 8 a.m.–5 p.m., Monday through Friday, in the office.”
“Five years ago I changed jobs for a lower salary and more flexibility. I think my answer will be the same five years from now.”
To be clear, these respondents are talking specifically about flexible work hours. That's enormously valuable on its own. But after years of reporting on women at work, I've come to think flexibility extends much further than our schedules.
Once you broaden the definition, you start seeing flexibility everywhere: in where we work, how we work, how we communicate, and what support people need to do our best work.
I'll leave you with one more pattern I noticed over the years. Nearly every time we asked experts how managers should support someone with a disability, neurodiversity, kids, migraines—whatever the circumstance—the answer was consistent.
"Ask them what they need."
What a remarkably simple—and telling—workplace philosophy.
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