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OFFICIAL SCIENCE: Men are freezing women out of the workplace

Some like it hot

As the Northern hemisphere languishes in summer temperatures, a new study has shown that office climate control systems are giving women the cold shoulder.

Many office air-conditioning systems are locked down to avoid arguments about how hot or cold to have the building. In the 1960s and 1970s, studies were made to decide on the optimum temperatures for workplaces, and this is used by office managers to set the temperature.

The problem is that a key metric in the data used to calculate these temperatures is wrong, according to a paper published in Nature Climate Change – specifically it's male only.

In general women like the temperature a little hotter than men – 25°C (77°F) versus 22°C (72°F) respectively. In part, this is down to a difference in the metabolism between the sexes, and temperature controls take as their base point a 40-year-old man weighing 70kg (11st).

The researchers point out that getting a temperature right is not only good for the workforce, but also for the climate. Regulations on building temperatures are responsible for 30 per cent of global carbon-dioxide emissions worldwide, and so getting this right is important.

Before you rush for the thermostat in a green-fueled frenzy, it's worth pointing out that this study only involved 16 female test subjects, which is hardly a representative sample for the three billion or so women on the planet.

The study also leaves out mention of other factors. The heavier someone is the more likely they are to have slightly different body temperatures, for example, and a lot depends on the dress code workers are asked to comply with – skirts are cooler than trousers, after all. ®

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