Why Women Are Cold at Work

Why is it that men and women appear to feel temperature differently? That inside air-conditioned offices, women often slip on cardigans or ask for the air-conditioning to be dialled down a bit?

According to a new study, this is because the ideal temperature for men and women is different. Women, the research finds, feel the cold more readily. They prefer temperatures in a range of 24-25≤ celsius, at least 2.5≤ warmer than men. And the reason women find the air in offices too chilly so often is that temperatures are typically set with the comfort of male workers in mind. More specifically, for the comfort of a man who is about 40 years old and weighs around 70 kg.

For the study, which was conducted by two researchers from Maastricht University in the Netherlands and published in the journal Nature Climate Change, 16 female students with an average age of 23 and an average weight of 65 kg were studied. They wore light summer clothing—underwear, socks, a cotton T-shirt and polyester sweatpants— and simulated seated office work like sending emails or reading books. After measuring factors including skin temperature and internal body temperature, the researchers found that women’s metabolic rates were significantly lower than the values obtained for the 70 kg, 40-year-old man.

The researchers write that metabolic rates can vary across humans based on a number of factors such as weight, age and fitness level to the type of work he does on a daily basis. The temperature set in an office, however, is based on the assumption that every worker is a man, around 40 years old and 70 kg heavy. It also does not take into account the elderly or people with different body types who have other metabolic rates.

The researchers write in the study: ‘An accurate representation of thermal demand of all occupants leads to actual energy consumption predictions and real energy savings of buildings.’ As one of them told CBS News’ web portal, “Women like it 77≤ [Fahrenheit], men usually like it 72≤ [Fahrenheit]. That’s a big gap.”

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