For thousands of workers, especially women with caring responsibilities, remote and hybrid work wasn’t just a convenience, it was a lifeline. As companies roll back flexibility, many fear a return to the rigid structures that once locked them out of opportunity.
Employers cite benefits such as in-person collaboration, spontaneous innovation and team cohesion as key drivers of return-to-office mandates. But critics argue that these gains must not come at the cost of gender equality.
Will mandatory return to office orders set women back? And what is the situation in Ireland regarding gender equality?
One of the best ways to understand where the State is in terms of gender equality is to look at the Gender Equality Index, produced by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), says Jorge Cabrita, senior research manager at Eurofound’s Working Life unit.
“Over the last decade, Ireland has been improving greatly in terms of gender equality. However, this reached a peak in 2022, and 2024 is only slightly above the score obtained in 2021,” he says.
“Ireland ranks ninth in the EU on the Gender Equality Index. From 2021 to 2022, Ireland’s index saw a modest increase of only 0.4 points, one of the lowest increases among EU countries during that period. However, setbacks in the domains of money, knowledge and health hindered more progress despite increases in the domain of power.”
Preliminary figures of the European Working Conditions Survey 2024 provide a picture of the labour market in the State which shows a degree of gender segregation, says Cabrita, which is a significant hurdle to gender equality.
“Only 21 per cent of male workers and 28 per cent of female workers are in ‘mixed’ occupations -occupations/professions which are carried out by between 40 and 60 per cent of male or female workers. Some 31 per cent of male individuals working in Ireland are in ‘very male’ occupations – in which more than 80 per cent of workers are male.
“More than 60 per cent of employees in Ireland have a male boss or supervisor. More than 80 per cent of male employees have a male boss. About 53 per cent of female employees have a female boss.”
Another hurdle is the poor division of labour between men and women. Men, on average, work more hours than women on paid work but women bear most of the burden with unpaid work – including housework tasks and cooking, caring for children and caring for other members of the family, Cabrita says.
Are companies implementing mandatory office returns?
In a research project looking at the challenges of managing hybrid work, in which several experts have been interviewed, they consistently note that, despite the visibility of high-profile cases in the media, full return-to-office mandates remain rare across Europe, Cabrita says.
“There are some high-profile organisations, particularly in the United States of America, that have announced five-day in-office policies. This may have affected workers in the Irish offices of such companies, but these cases do not seem to represent the broader trend in Europe.”
According to some case studies conducted recently on the implementation of hybrid work, sometimes organisations attempt to encourage specific groups, such as new hires or employees in leadership positions, to spend more time in the office, Cabrita says.
“Still, according to the information we have collected, in practice, hybrid arrangements remain the dominant model over the complete office, with individual teams often shaping their ways of working within broader company guidelines.”
Does mandatory office return disproportionately affect women?
The available data from Eurostat’s Labour Force Survey shows that the percentages of people usually working from home decreased since their peak in 2021, and remained at around 20 per cent in 2024, for both men and women. Women show a small increase between 2023 and 2024 (approximately one percentage point).
“When we consider that the number of employed women has been increasing, this means that, at least for the moment, there is no evidence that women are being pushed out of the workforce because of return-to-office policies,” says Cabrita.
“If anything, there are more women usually working from home in Ireland.”
With regard to the gender labour division, for paid and unpaid work (including care), it is completely skewed against women, Cabrita says.
“On average, men in Ireland spend six hours per week more in paid work, while women spend close to 15 hours more per week on unpaid work – including housework and cooking, caring for children and/or caring for other members of the household.”
Is mandatory return to work setting back gender equality?
Mandatory return to work may potentially undo some progress in this area, says Cabrita.
“In two organisations where we have conducted case studies on hybrid work, the adoption of hybrid work in combination with flexible schedules enabled the extension of contractual working hours for employees, mostly women, who were previously working part-time for care reasons.
“In these cases, hybrid work has enabled employees to better accommodate their professional and care obligations, with positive implications for their wages and career prospects. This means that hybrid work has the potential to counteract some gender inequalities.”
This finding is in line with previous research based on pre-pandemic panel data, which indicates that hybrid work can contribute to the reduction of the gender gap in contractual hours, although other gender inequalities may persist (career progression and wages) due to entrenched gendered stigma against women with care responsibilities.
Return-to-office policies would probably make these situations and opportunities much more complicated again, Cabrita says.
As Ireland navigates the post-pandemic future of work, the challenge is clear: preserve the flexibility gains that helped close gender gaps – without compromising business goals. The return to the office shouldn’t mean a return to inequality.
