Thematic Working Paper No.1: How flexible working arrangements shape workplace experience across genders in Australia

Abstract

This is the first thematic report of the Working for Women Research Partnership, a collaboration between the Australian Government Office of Women and researchers at the University of Sydney, University of Technology Sydney and the University of Melbourne. It focuses on flexible work. Drawing on the Australian Workplace Gender Equality Survey (AWGES), a nationally representative survey of Australian workers, the report details how flexible work is accessed, supported and experienced across industries, the gendered composition of workplaces and specific demographic cohorts from a gendered lens. The report examines whether workers have access to flexibility, and also the quality of that flexibility. We focus on two kinds of flexibility: temporal and spatial. Temporal flexibility refers to when and how working hours are organised, while spatial flexibility refers to where work takes place, capturing whether jobs are performed fully on-site, in hybrid patterns that combine home and workplace days, or in remote-first arrangements. The report finds that flexible work in Australia is widespread but uneven. Gender is a key factor shaping whether workers experience "good flex", flexibility that expands choice and autonomy, or "bad flex", flexibility that limits control, reinforces insecurity or intensifies pressure.

From a gendered perspective, the findings show that gender inequalities in the workplace are not being addressed through the spread and uptake of flexible working arrangements and in some cases, new inequalities are emerging. Men are more likely to access high autonomy, well-supported hybrid and remote roles within secure, full-time jobs, while women and non-binary workers are more often channelled into flexibility that comes through reduced hours, casual work and tightly controlled schedules. For many women, particularly those in feminised frontline sectors, women with disabilities, migrant and language diverse women, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, flexibility is still tied to lower pay, weaker security and fewer opportunities for progression and influence. Flexible work has become a new axis along which advantages and disadvantages are organised, with "good flex" concentrated among men and "bad flex" disproportionately borne by women and gender diverse workers. Addressing these patterns will be critical if flexible work is to support rather than undermine the gender equality ambitions of the Working for Women Strategy.