Differences in thermal comfort and satisfaction in offices based on gender

Abstract

Women's labor force participation in Asia remains low and shows a downward trend despite improved female education and significant economic growth. Several factors contribute to increased female labor force participation. Providing comfortable indoor environments to female employees is a necessary step in that direction. Are our offices inclusive for women? This study investigates the gender differences in environmental satisfaction in offices in Qatar, Japan and India from the thermal comfort and indoor environmental surveys the author conducted collecting 12, 192 sets of data. Further, wider comparisons are drawn with the office environments in other Asian countries relying on the ASHRAE Database I and II containing 10, 551 sets of data from seven more countries. Except in Japan and South Korea, women are more dissatisfied than men with their thermal environments in all other countries investigated. In Qatar, female dissatisfaction is significantly lower in all the other environmental parameters studied (thermal, air movement, humidity, indoor air quality, noise and lighting levels). For example, the gender differences as noted through odds ratios indicated that female subjects in Asia are 37.3 % (p<0.001, N = 22, 343) more likely to be dissatisfied with their thermal environments than are their male counterparts. Similar consistent trend is noted for other environmental variables as well.