Abstract

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the topic of work preference has sparked a renewed interest in psychological researchers. This study aimed to explore whether either males or females prefer working from home. A sample of forty undergraduate psychology students were asked to complete three questions (age, gender, work preference) in a short questionnaire. The quantitative data was then analysed by applying a Chi Square test for independence (Pearson, 1900). Results from the chi square test for independence,                X ² = (1, N = 40) = .02, p > .05, concluded that there was no significant relationship between the two variables and so the null hypothesis was accepted. The hypothesis was that, compared to their peers, either males or females, predominantly prefer remote working. This paper also provides the findings of previous work that were conducted by several authors in order to provide a more in-depth analysis of the provided data.

Literature Review

An increase of literature has been published since the rise of the Covid-19 pandemic, which focuses on the topic of gender roles and preference of working from home. Over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, there was a significantly dangerous level of infection. Measures such as face coverings and social distancing were put in place to help ease the spread of coronavirus. The government advised the people of Great Britain to do their part by stopping any non-essential travel. The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, issued a statement published on the 16th of March 2020 where he stated, “We need people to start working from home where they possibly can”. Shortly after, the country entered their first lockdown which resulted in an increase of people working from home. The Office for National Statistics found that 37% of people worked from home in 2020 compared to 27% in 2019. 
According to McKinsey & Company (2020), approximately 79.4% of men who were working remotely and were caring for others reported positive work effectiveness compared to 37% of women, while 70.5% of the same group of men reported positive well-being in comparison to 40.1% of women. Working from home may overwhelm women more so than men due to the stress of having to work a double shift (Hotchschild 1989) which is the balance of unpaid domestic labour and paid work. An article published by Vox News suggests that this could explain McKinsey’s results, also mentioning that “one in four women think about downshifting their career or stepping out of the workforce entirely”. This underlines the importance of women finding balance between their home and work life while also implying that women prefer to work at their designated place of work.
In an online survey conducted by the Society of Human Resource Management on the 16th of June 2021, 40% of women who worked from home reported an increase in their productivity compared to 35% of men. This (slight discrepancy) might convey the differences between men and women’s preferences for working from home.
In an online article by the BBC (2021), assistant professor Seulki Jang from the University of Oklahoma states “Women may not feel ready to return to the office…they need to hide [their] stress as a working professional…Women may feel responsible for handling family-related matters and being away from home may create a feeling of guilt…”. This may determine women’s preference for working from home as they face additional difficulties to their male counterparts.
Research by Shareena and Shahid (2021) supports the null hypothesis of this study as they found no association between gender and work preference. The authors also found that having children at home influenced women’s preference to work remotely. Additionally, having a strong internet connection, a comfortable environment and face to face interaction also played a role in people’s preference.
The aim of this study is to explore whether there is an association between gender and working from home. Based on the literature provided in this review, the hypothesis for this study will be that more women compared to males will prefer working from home than at their dedicated place of work, or vice versa.

Method

Participants

The sample consisted of forty undergraduate psychology students (14 males, 26 females) between the ages of 18-51, with a mean age of 26.48 years. As the research question aims to look at men and women, the data provided by the non-binary individual was not included in the process of data analysis, which reduced the total number of participants from the original 41 down to 40. The research took place within the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, in the psychology lecture room. An opportunistic sampling method was used to save time and money gathering participants (McLeod, 2019). 

Design 

A between-subjects design was used to explore the association between two categories i.e., gender and preference for working from home. The two variables being explored are gender of the participants and participants’ preferred place of work. The data was analysed using a chi-square test for independence (Pearson, 1900) to explore the association between these two variables.

Materials

The study was completed in the psychology classroom where the module lecturer made sure participants had access to the internet through a mobile phone or laptop. Participants were given an information sheet (see Appendix A) and asked to fill in a consent (see Appendix B) form and then three questions in an online questionnaire: these questions being participants’ age, gender and preference of work location (see Appendix C). Finally, the students were asked to fill in a debrief form which re-emphasised the participants right to withdraw (see Appendix D).

Procedure

The lecturer made sure that everyone involved in the study had access to the internet through using a technological device (i.e., mobile phone, iPad, laptop). Participants were then directed to an online questionnaire on the university’s Moodle page. The students were asked to first complete a consent form which highlighted the aims of the study and emphasised the participants’ right to withdraw at any point throughout the time they would be completing the questionnaire. After agreeing to the terms of the study and consenting to having their data collected, the participants then completed the questionnaire which involved three questions: what their gender was, how old they were, and whether they preferred to work from home. After these three questions were answered, the participants were then debriefed.
Results

The aim of this study was to determine whether there is an association between gender and preference for working from home. Seventy percent of participants said they preferred to work at their designated place of work (28/40). From the observed values 10/14 men and 18/26 women preferred to work at their designated place of work. The results from the Chi-Square test for independence suggests that there is no significant association between gender and preferred place of work as the degree of freedom was 1 and the calculated p value was .88 which was more than the significance value of .05; in order for the test to be significant, the Chi Square result should have been at least 3.841, but it was calculated as being .02, X ² = (1, N = 40) = .02, p > .05

Discussion

As previously stated in the results section, the null hypothesis for this study was accepted as there was no significant relationship between the two variables which are gender and preference for working from home. The results from this study supports previous work, such as the one conducted by Shareena and Shahid (2021), who also found no association between gender and preference for working from home and also noted that “…respondents working from home will be willing to work if they are having good and supportive environment to work from home”.
The sample of this study mainly consisted of undergraduate students, which can be problematic for many reasons. The use of mainly undergraduate students provides an unrepresentative sample. Not only because of the use of one course subject, but also because there isn’t a large variety in age range, nationality, work experience, educational background etc. The sample does not create a good representation of the target population, making it difficult to generalise results to the wider population. The use of opportunistic sampling can be criticised as participants are not selected randomly therefore creating a biased sample. The mean age of participants was 26.48 years, which emphasises participants’ lack of life/work experience meaning that they haven’t had enough exposure to form a valid opinion about their work preference.
The setting of the study may have acted as a confounding variable. As the participants completed the questionnaire at their designated place of work, this may have had an affect on the answers that were provided. To improve the questionnaire, a Likert scale could be used where the researcher can ask questions that will encourage the participants to think about their opinions on working remotely or from home. For example, a study conducted by Sethi and Saini (2020) used a Likert scale that included 15 items e.g., “I’m able to maintain a healthy work/life balance while working from home”.
The findings of this study support that of previous literature as they underline that there is no significant association between gender and work preference as statistics compiled in a Canadian survey by Statista (2021) shows that only 8.2% of females and 10.1% of males were “willing to work all hours outside of the home”. This implies that men and women don’t differ much in their preference for working from home.
To conclude, the data found in this study was non-significant, which resulted in a rejection of the hypothesis. The study found that there is no significant difference between gender and their work preference, which proved the null hypothesis to be true. Future research could improve by adopting a more qualitative approach in order to explore people’s true opinions and reasoning behind their work preference. Additionally, using a larger sample involving individuals from a variety of life stages and backgrounds could help create a more representative sample.