{"id":118,"date":"2015-09-15T22:55:52","date_gmt":"2015-09-15T21:55:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coneixement.info\/blog\/?p=118"},"modified":"2015-09-27T11:23:02","modified_gmt":"2015-09-27T10:23:02","slug":"science-explains-why-women-are-always-freezing-at-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coneixement.info\/blog\/science-explains-why-women-are-always-freezing-at-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Science Explains Why Women Are Always Freezing at Work"},"content":{"rendered":"

Turns out workplace thermostats are kinda sexist<\/strong><\/p>\n

Women who are always freezing at work finally know who to blame: Men.<\/p>\n

In a new report published Monday in Nature, researchers found that most office building temperatures are set using a decades-old formula for a \u201cthermal comfort model\u201d that takes into account factors like air temperature, air speed, and clothing insulation. That\u2019s converted into a seven-point scale and compared to the Predicted Percentage Dissatisfied, which gauges how many people are likely to feel uncomfortably cool or warm.<\/p>\n

The problem is that one variable in that formula is inherently sexist. Turns out that the resting metabolic rate, or the measure of how fast we generate heat, that\u2019s used in the calculation is based on a 40-year-old man weighing about 154 pounds. But women, who make up half of today\u2019s workforce, typically have slower metabolic rates because they\u2019re on average smaller and have more body fat. Thus, the study says the current \u201cthermal comfort model\u201d may overestimate women\u2019s resting heat production by up to 35%.<\/p>\n

Women\u2019s physiology and wardrobe selection are also factors. Joost van Hoof, a building physicist at Fontys University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands, was not involved in the study, but provided this memorable commentary to The New York Times:<\/p>\n

\u201cMany men, they wear suits and ties, and women tend to dress sometimes with cleavage. The cleavage is closer to the core of the body, so the temperature difference between the air temperature and the body temperature there is higher when it\u2019s cold. I wouldn\u2019t overestimate the effect of cleavage, but it\u2019s there.\u201d
\nWhat\u2019s there to do about the problem? The study offers this solution: change the temperature setting formula. Accounting for women\u2019s metabolic rates and body tissue insulation, female workers might prefer a 75 degree Fahrenheit office, the Times says. Typical office temperatures now hover around 70 degrees.<\/p>\n

This article<\/a> originally appeared on Time.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Turns out workplace thermostats are kinda sexist Women who are always freezing at work finally know who to blame: Men. In a new report published Monday in Nature, researchers found that most office building temperatures are set using a decades-old formula for a \u201cthermal comfort model\u201d that takes into account factors like air temperature, air … Continue reading Science Explains Why Women Are Always Freezing at Work<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coneixement.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coneixement.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coneixement.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coneixement.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coneixement.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/coneixement.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":180,"href":"https:\/\/coneixement.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118\/revisions\/180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coneixement.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coneixement.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coneixement.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}