By John Arenas | December 23, 2013

Is Workplace Flexibility a More Female Characteristic?

Workplace attributes traditionally associated with male leadership styles are falling in favor.

From Why Women Still Can’t Have it All to Lean In, gender-politics in the workplace have been a never-ending debate this year (and the last 160 some-odd years). While motherhood is not the only reason people need workplace flexibility, it is a chief example of how the now defunct workplace needs re-structuring.

But it seems that things are looking up.

TheNational.ae recently reported a study led by John Gerzema, author of The Athena Doctrine: How Women (And the Men Who Think Like Them) Will Rule the Future. He polled some 64,000 people across 13 countries on their level of satisfaction with the patriarchal structure of the society and workplace:

A full 57 per cent of people were dissatisfied with the conduct of men in their country, including a staggering 79 per cent of Japanese and South Koreans, and 66 per cent of those in the UK and US. Among millennials, nearly 80 per cent were dissatisfied.

 If this means a shift from the traditionally male characteristics—which The National named as strength, decisiveness, resilience—in favor of a more expressive and flexible work structure, we suspect corporations could begin to look more like us. A more communal, matriarchal workplace could sustain a new wave of innovative ideas.