Why Should Women Need to Wear Sweaters at the Office in the Summer?

In a major study published in Scientific Reports, women accounted for nearly two-thirds of the employees dissatisfied with office temperatures. Women were 1.8 times more likely than men to be dissatisfied, and many reported being too cold—even during the summer. Most troubling, 42 percent of the women said the thermal environment interfered with their ability to do their jobs. This is a workplace comfort, productivity, and gender-equity issue. 1

Research suggests that one reason for this disparity is that traditional thermal-comfort models were developed largely around the metabolism of an average adult man. A 2015 study published in Nature Climate Change found that these models overestimate women’s metabolic heat production. Consequently, office cooling systems may produce temperatures that are comfortable for many men but unnecessarily cold for many women. 2

Earlier research also found that women generally have a lower sedentary metabolic rate than men. Because they tend to produce less metabolic heat while sitting, women may become uncomfortable in a cool office sooner than men. 3

A controlled experiment involving 543 participants found that women performed better on math and verbal tasks as the room became warmer. Men performed somewhat better at lower temperatures, but the improvement among women as temperatures increased was more pronounced than the decline in men’s performance. The researchers concluded that mixed-gender workplaces might improve overall performance by maintaining warmer temperatures than many offices traditionally use. 4

Another study published in Applied Ergonomics found that women preferred an average room temperature of approximately 77.1°F, compared with 71.6°F for men. It also found that women experienced greater discomfort at both unusually low and unusually high temperatures. 5

Women should not routinely need sweaters, blankets, or space heaters simply to remain comfortable at work during the summer. Setting the office temperature at 77 degrees Fahrenheit will reduce errors, make women more comfortable, reduce energy bills, and be earth friendly.

1 Thomas Parkinson et al., “Overcooling of Offices Reveals Gender Inequity in Thermal Comfort,” Scientific Reports 11, 23684 (2021), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-03121-1.

2 Boris Kingma and Wouter van Marken Lichtenbelt, “Energy Consumption in Buildings and Female Thermal Demand,” Nature Climate Change 5 (2015): 1054–1056, https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2741.

3 R. Ferraro et al., “Lower Sedentary Metabolic Rate in Women Compared with Men,” Journal of Clinical Investigation 90, no. 3 (1992): 780–784, https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI115951.

4 Tom Y. Chang and Agne Kajackaite, “Battle for the Thermostat: Gender and the Effect of Temperature on Cognitive Performance,” PLOS ONE 14, no. 5 (2019): e0216362, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0216362.

5 M. Y. Beshir and J. D. Ramsey, “Comparison Between Male and Female Subjective Estimates of Thermal Effects and Sensations,” Applied Ergonomics 12, no. 1 (1981): 29–33, https://doi.org/10.1016/0003-6870(81)90091-0.