Does the ‘right to request’ flexible work policy influence men’s and women’s uptake of flexible working and well-being: findings from the UK Household Longitudinal Study

Editorial reading guide · Independence

Does the ability to request flexibility translate into an option people can use?

This reading brings the historical right-to-request reform, uptake of flexibility and unequal changes in wellbeing into the independence pathway. The household-panel policy analysis using difference-in-differences offers a specific workplace lens on how employment and family life meet.

Study context

United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Study participants around the 2014 flexible-work policy extension

Age / stage: Working adults; results compared by gender

Read with three questions

1. How did the researchers define and assess eligibility, uptake and forms of flexible work?
2. What does the study design allow us to conclude about difference-in-differences assumptions and gender-specific estimates?
3. What would need to be checked before adopting evaluating who benefits from a flexibility-request process?

Keep the limits in view

This evaluates a historical UK reform rather than giving current legal advice; causal interpretation depends on design assumptions and not all flexible-work forms increased.