Your Office Air Conditioning Is Sexist — No, Really, It Is
The air conditioning in your office is sexist. There's a sentence you probably never thought you'd read with complete seriousness.
According to new research that is not a joke, the AC units offices favor men. That's because units run on a formula dating to the 1960s. As the New York Times explains:
The original formula, which is based on the resting metabolic rate of a 40-year-old male weighing 154 pounds, dates back to the 1960s. Considering that the majority of workers at the time were men, as were the scientists who determined said formula, this makes complete sense."
That may have worked just fine when LBJ was in office, but we're well into the 21st century now and plenty of women work in offices, too. Since women have slower metabolic rates they are prone to being cold while on the clock, which explains why they can shiver like someone ran their fingernails along a chalkboard.
One physicist who did not take part in the study says it all makes sense, noting, "If women have lower need for cooling it actually means you can save energy, because right now we’re just cooling for this male population. Many men think that women are just nagging. But it’s because of their physiology."
The topic has women well, hot under the collar, as witnessed by this exchange on Sky News above.
What do you think? Is your office cold too often? Do you fight with your co-workers about the temperature in the office?