Gender, Care Responsibilities, and Hybrid Work: Understanding Unequal Well-being Benefits in Urban India

Abstract

Hybrid work is frequently presented as a remedy for the work–family conflicts that fall most heavily on women, yet the evidence is mixed: flexibility can relieve care demands or intensify them. This study asks whether the benefits of hybrid work are distributed evenly once access is equal. Survey data were collected from 417 employees in 21 information technology, finance and shipping organisations in Chennai, India. Women and men reported statistically indistinguishable access to hybrid work arrangements, work-from-home policy support and flexible scheduling (d = .13–.14, all 95% confidence intervals including zero). Their reported outcomes differed: women reported higher home workspace adequacy, perceived schedule flexibility, work–life balance satisfaction (d = 0.46) and well-being (d = 0.33). Women also reported far heavier domestic coordination loads (d = 0.80–1.06). Family composition moderated how strongly hybrid work resources translated into outcomes: the association between home workspace adequacy and work–life balance satisfaction was significantly steeper for employees with dependent children than for those with no dependents (β = .56 vs .32). We argue that equal access does not produce equal benefit, because the value of a work-arrangement resource depends on the domestic demands it can absorb. Implications for gender-equitable hybrid work design are discussed.