Flexible working policy in UK higher education: a feminist thematic analysis of gendered intersectional inequalities

Flexible Working (FW) is widely promoted in Higher Education (HE) as a mechanism for inclusion, wellbeing, and equality, particularly following COVID-19 and legislative reforms. Yet, institutional commitments to flexibility often coexist with persistent inequalities in who is able to access, negotiate, and sustain arrangements. This paper critically examines how FW is constructed within UK HE policy, analyzing what is articulated and silent. Drawing on an intersectional feminist analysis of 46 publicly available FW policies, the study approaches policy as a governing text that organizes care, responsibility, and belonging. Through reflexive thematic analysis, it identifies patterns where flexibility is framed as universal yet conditional, inclusive yet administratively controlled, and coded through normative care assumptions. Structural inequalities shaped by intersecting gendered marginalisations are largely unacknowledged, limiting the transformative potential of flexibility as an equity mechanism. The paper contributes to gender and education scholarship by foregrounding policy silence as a site of power.