Sexual discrimination is in the air – in virtually every office in Britain.
If your office is currently full of women in scarves, clutching hot water bottles, while the men are basking in T-shirts, a new study might explain what many have always suspected – your air con is sexist.
The study by two Dutch scientists at Maastricht University (both men, just to be clear) found that most offices set their thermostats based on the resting metabolic rate of a 40-year-old man – as per standard indoor air conditioning guidelines which date back to the 1960s.
But, because women tend to be smaller and have more body fat then men, they have slower metabolic rates. Which means the current air conditioning standards are too cold for most women.
‘Many men think that women are just nagging,’ building physicist (yes it’s a job) Joost van Hoof said of the study’s… Read the full story