Women are always cold – that we know. My husband says it’s from having kids and having my life force (and body heat) “sucked out of me”. So, why aren’t more places handing out heated blankets to accommodate our lack of warmth?
That I don’t know but what I do know, is that Experts Say Women Perform Better at Work When They’re Not Freezing and I just want to reply -DUH!
A study published in the PLOS ONE examined 500 individuals who were asked to perform a set of cognitive tasks (math, verbal and cognitive reflection), subject to experimentally manipulated indoor temperatures.
They found that for math and verbal tasks, consistent with their subjective temperature preferences, women perform better at warmer temperatures versus cold temperatures.
Men display the opposite pattern, performing better at lower temperatures.
It has been found that men and women have roughly the same core body temperature with some studies finding the female core body temperature is slightly higher than men’s.
But it’s our perception of temperature which depends more on skin temperature, and for women, that tends to be lower due to hormones.
In fact, in a study published in a 2015 paper in the journal, Nature, found most offices set their thermostats using a male-centric “thermal comfort model,” which are “intrinsically non-energy-efficient in providing comfort to females.”
So, yes, most offices favor the temperature for men, keeping it more cold and therefore, have offices with women who may be underperforming due to being cold.
If you want women to perform better, give out heated fans and heated blankets during the hiring process, they’ll keep warm, perform better and it’ll be better for everyone!
