icon-search

Enter a search term to see suggested pages.

Close
What we do
Workplace Consultancy
icon-consultancy
Design & Build
icon-design
Workplace Furniture
icon-furniture
Workplace Technology
icon-technology
Our Story
Our People
Careers
Academy
Sustainability
icon-case-study-red
icon-view_1
icon-blog
icon-whitepaper
icon-video
icon-360
Claremont Claremont
Chat
Search
  • What we do
  • Our work
  • Our thinking
  • Destination Office
  • Our story
  • Contact us
  • What we do
    Sub Menu
    • Overview
    • Workplace Consultancy
    • Design & Build
    • Workplace Furniture
    • Workplace Technology
  • Our work
  • Our thinking
  • Destination Office
  • Our story
    Sub Menu
    • Overview
    • Our People
    • Careers
    • Academy
    • Sustainability
  • Contact us

Blog

How Office Interior Design Can Help Support Women at Work.

9 March 2022 | by Sarah Syson

4
MIN

read-circle
How Office Interior Design Can Help Support Women at Work.

Home → Our Thinking → How Office Interior Design Can Help Support Women at Work.

There are more than five million women aged 40-55 in the UK and 80% of them are dealing with menopausal symptoms. While menopause was dismissed as a ‘women’s issue’ for years and given almost cultural taboo status– it’s fast becoming a more open topic for workplace discussion.

post-line-1

Of course, recognising women’s needs isn’t all about the menopause, but the increased attention it’s getting has helped to put women’s wider needs front and centre. In fact, it’s encouraging employers to think more earnestly about how they support women at all stages of their professional lives.

For employers keen to show they value their female employees, they must put the appropriate policies and practices in place, as well as give them the spaces they need to thrive.  Here, Sarah Syson, Design Manager at Claremont marks International Women’s Day by discussing how to make women feel supported through office interior design.

“There’s been a distinct move towards understanding and catering for the needs of women in the workplace over the last few years. Thankfully it’s part of a bigger movement to understand all workplace users as individuals rather than a homogenous group, in order to create a workplace that’s rich in diversity inclusivity, belonging and equity (DIBE).

“Making sure spaces cater for women means acknowledging their wider physiological and emotional needs.  One such example is giving women autonomy over the temperature and lighting of their workspace. If a member of staff is feeling light sensitive, she can dim the light levels, and if she is having a hot flush, she can create a cooler space. It gives her the chance to regulate her temperature, without throwing open the window, and worrying that she’s inconveniencing her colleagues.

This isn’t exclusively with menopause in mind either – women typically feel the cold more than men.  Ultimately, it’s all about creating layered spaces that flex to everybody’s needs. If women know they’ll have an element of control over their environment, they’ll feel reassured the office meets their needs.

Gender neutral toilets are quite a topical discussion point at the moment. They are often favoured by facilities professionals and landlords because they free up square footage for other facilities, but gender neutral toilets are rarely well received by women. While they do have some benefits such as addressing ‘line equality’ (the fact that women often have to queue for toilets, compared with men) they don’t always afford the privacy that women – menopausal or not – may require.

To my mind, we can address this by making sure that if organisations opt for gender neutral toilets they include all the facilities you might need within the cubicle space – that’s the sink, hand dryer, sanitary bin as well as the toilet. Also, the cubicle must be a full height partition wall with a solid door that goes all the way to the floor.  This is about more than just audio privacy, it ensures a feeling of greater comfort and safety for all users; something that traditional toilet cubicles don’t achieve. It’s a simple office interior design consideration, but it can make all the difference for women.

I’ve been an advocate of including breastfeeding rooms in the workplace for some time – and think it definitely helps to encourage women back to work after maternity leave – but what’s happened historically is this has been rolled into a more generic wellbeing room, which also double up as the prayer room and a sick bay, with everyone waiting their turn to use it. As a consequence it’s rarely used by anyone. Designing with diversity and inclusion in mind separates these individuals activities into specific audiences – for women that means they have the comfort , flexibility and privacy they need. It becomes an owned space.

These female wellbeing spaces are incredibly valuable for menopausal women too and provide a safe retreat for those managing symptoms. To make these spaces effective for women they should be positioned near the entrance, rather than in the middle of the floorplate.  This can help women feel less self-conscious and afford greater privacy when visiting them.

There are some more subtle needs of women that often get overlooked in building design too. Widespread use of glass in modern offices has lots of benefits, light being the main one, but when it’s used heavily in atriums it can compromise women’s privacy. Guests sitting in reception can look up into meeting rooms and also see straight up women’s skirts. Landlords often resist the use of manifestations or frosting on this glazing as it spoils the aesthetic of their building – even though it completely ignores the privacy needs of women.

Challenging these design habits requires education. Passionate designers, particularly women, need to really champion female needs and educate landlords, architects, building owners and occupiers about how easy it is to make the built environment better suit the needs of half of the population. Effective office interior design reflects the needs of all users – and that has to include women.”

Author

Sarah Syson
Associate Director, Head of Design

Related thinking

cs-line-9

Blog

6 Equitable Office Interior Design Tips to Improve DIBE.

Video

Claremont & myenergi – A Video Case Study

Whitepaper

The Next Normal – Part 2

Case Study

Shoosmiths, London

home-line-4

OFFICE INTERIOR
DESIGN & BUILD

From Workplace Consultancy through design, to the build and beyond. Whether you use all or part of our capabilities, you’ll find we’re a safe pair of hands.

home-line-5
icon-plus

Workplace Consultancy

Helping you achieve the optimal combination of people, space and technology, enabling your organisation to realise its maximum potential in a FutureFlexible way.

icon-plus

Design & Build

Claremont’s comprehensive in-house capability takes care of it all, it’s an end-to-end solution that mitigates risk, accelerates timescales and controls costs.

icon-plus

Workplace Furniture

We believe furniture has a huge impact on the people using it. We aren't limited to a specific range of suppliers, so finding exactly the right products for you or even designing you something unique is at the heart of our approach.

icon-plus

Workplace Technology

Just the right tech fully integrated with your space gives you that all-important agile and collaborative environment.

What we do

Get in touch

home-line-10
logo-ig
logo-twitter
logo-linkedin
logo-pinterest

    Warrington Design Studio (HQ)
    • T: 0800 262 880
    • E: hello@claremontgi.com

    Claremont House
    The Breeze
    2 Kelvin Close
    Birchwood
    Warrington
    WA3 7PB

    Bristol Design Studio

    Origin Workspace
    40 Berkeley Square
    Bristol
    BS8 1HP

    Living Wage Logo

    © Claremont 2023

    Design and build by

    Future
    • Privacy Policy
    • Anti-Slavery Policy
    • Terms and Conditions
    This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this.
    Dismiss
    Privacy & Cookies Policy

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT