Flexibility stigma in the UK and Germany post-pandemic: intersectionality of stigma across gender and parental lines

Is homeworking stigmatised in the post-pandemic labour market, and if so, does this vary across gender, parental status, and welfare regimes? Mothers' homeworking may attract stronger bias due to assumptions that it is used for family purposes. Yet fathers' or childless workers' homeworking can represent a stronger violation of ideal worker norms and breadwinning expectations, resulting in greater penalties. We expect variation to be shaped by countries' institutional support for homeworking and prevailing work and gender norms. We compare experimental vignette data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study (Understanding Society) Innovation Panel and the German Labour Force Panel Study of the Hans-Böckler Foundation, both fielded in the second half of 2023. In both countries, homeworking is associated with career penalties, particularly for those working from home more often (3–4 days vs. 1–2 days). Across both countries, mothers were penalised least: mothers working 1–2 days from home experienced no significant penalty, and in Germany this extended to childless women. Fathers and childless men faced stronger penalties, supporting the femininity stigma thesis. Penalties were weaker in Germany, particularly for occasional homeworking, but cross-national differences were modest, indicating that flexibility stigma persists across contexts, even if institutions buffer its severity.