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Abstract

Background
The ‘right to request’ flexible working policy has been gradually extended and, by 2014, extended to cover all workers with at least 26 weeks of continuous employment. The impact of these policy changes is unclear. This research aims to assess the effects of the 2014 policy reform on the uptake of flexible working and its impact on health and well-being, focusing on gender differences.

Methods
Data were drawn from waves 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 of the UK Household Longitudinal Study (2010–2020). We employed a doubly robust difference-in-differences method to estimate the average treatment effects on the treated of the 2014 policy reform. This analysis examined the effects on the uptake of flexible working, mental and physical health, and satisfaction with life, job and leisure.

Findings
The 2014 policy reform increased women’s uptake of reduced hours work arrangements, with the effect growing stronger over time. However, no increase in uptake was observed among men. No strong effects were found for flexitime or teleworking arrangements for either men or women. Additionally, the policy reform resulted in a reduction in psychological distress and improved life satisfaction among women.

Conclusions
The reduction in women’s psychological distress and improved life satisfaction might be partly explained by the increased women’s uptake of reduced hours arrangements, which may have enabled women to better meet their family care demands. However, even the gender-neutral policies on flexible working may inadvertently exacerbate gender inequalities in labour force participation by pushing women more into part-time work.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2025. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ Group. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
Departments:	School of Policy & Global Affairs School of Policy & Global Affairs > Department of Economics
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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