Working from home has long been viewed as a way to balance paid work and family life, yet new evidence shows that flexibility alone will not fix gender inequality at home. While remote work can lead to a more equal sharing of childcare, it only does so when men hold progressive attitudes about gender roles.
Researchers analysing over a decade of family data found that fathers who worked remotely were more likely to take on childcare and household duties if they believed these responsibilities should be shared equally.
But where men saw domestic work as mainly a woman’s job, remote work made little difference and sometimes widened the gap, with mothers taking on even more, a study by King’s Business School in London and Germany’s University of Konstanz found.
When Beliefs Trump Flexibility
The findings challenge the assumption that flexible work automatically improves equality. Remote work gives parents greater control over time, but cultural expectations still shape how that time is used.
In many households, mothers continue to do about 70 percent of childcare and housework. While the proportion of parents working from home has grown sharply since the pandemic, with nearly half of fathers and a third of mothers doing so by 2021, researchers found that only couples who already believed in shared domestic responsibility saw meaningful change.
When mothers worked remotely, they often absorbed even more household tasks, particularly when they or their partners held traditional beliefs about gender roles. But when fathers worked from home and viewed care as a joint duty, they were more likely to increase their contribution.
Professor Heejung Chung, director of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London, said structural measures such as the right to flexible work were not enough without deeper cultural change.
“Remote work can be a great equaliser, but only in households where men see themselves as equal partners in care. Without a shift in social attitudes, flexible working risks entrenching gender divides.
“Well paid, earmarked paternity leave in a child’s early years helps set expectations about who cares. Fathers increasingly want to take on this role. The question is whether governments will support them.”
Attitudes at Home Shape Outcomes at Work
The study draws on more than 13 years of German Family Panel data collected between 2008 and 2021, a period covering the rise of hybrid work and the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides rare long-term evidence that family beliefs have a measurable influence on how workplace flexibility plays out.
Dr Olga Leshchenko of the University of Konstanz said the research underscored the link between policy and perception. “Drawing on over a decade of data, including the COVID-19 pandemic when remote working expanded dramatically, our study highlights that structural policies such as the right to flexible work must be accompanied by efforts to challenge gender stereotypes, beginning with changing perceptions of men’s roles in family life,” she said.
The authors said flexible work could either reduce or reinforce inequality depending on these beliefs. In homes where both partners shared egalitarian values, men’s greater physical presence led to a real shift in behaviour. But in families where women were seen as the default caregivers, flexible work simply gave men more time to focus on paid work while women absorbed the unpaid load.
Turning Flexibility Into Fairness
The findings point to a subtle but significant issue: workplace flexibility can deliver its full wellbeing benefits only when cultural norms inside and outside the workplace evolve together.
Organisations that promote flexible work as a wellbeing benefit should consider how policies interact with family attitudes and support systems. Experts in gender equality and occupational health say employers can help narrow the gap by encouraging men to take parental leave, modelling flexible work at senior levels, and addressing stereotypes that associate care with women.
Company culture also matters. Where long-hours expectations persist or men fear stigma for taking family time, remote work may fail to deliver genuine balance. Employers that link flexibility to outcomes rather than visibility tend to see better results for both genders.
Flexible work has been shown in wider studies to improve productivity, reduce absence and enhance employee retention, but its success depends on fair access and shared responsibility. In dual-earner households, equal care roles support women’s participation and reduce burnout risk for both partners.
The Policy Challenge
Governments across Europe have expanded rights to remote and flexible work, yet many experts argue that gender-neutral policies risk masking unequal effects. Paternity leave remains shorter and less well paid than maternity leave in most countries, and take-up rates are low.
Workplace wellbeing specialists say closing the childcare gap requires both legislative and cultural change. Social expectations still shape decisions about who steps back when care demands rise. Without challenging these norms, the same flexibility designed to support equality can inadvertently reinforce old divisions.
The evidence suggests that the next phase of hybrid working should focus as much on culture as on logistics. Employers are being urged to track not only who works flexibly but how that flexibility is used, and to ensure both men and women feel empowered to use it for family life.
Remote working has opened the door to a more balanced model of care, but belief systems still determine who walks through it. Equality at home, the research concludes, depends as much on mindset as on policy.