Is Remote Work Attractive for Women Living in Peripheral Areas? A Survey-Based Experiment in Six EU Countries

Promoting remote work among women living in peripheral areas is a potential tool to limit gender and geographical imbalances in the labour market. This study is the first to explore the extent to which women living in peripheral municipalities (compared with those from metropolitan ones) are attracted to job offers with remote work options.

The study is based on a CAWI survey with a conjoint experiment conducted in Spring 2026 among 3,785 prime-aged women living in France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, and Sweden.

The initial results indicate that, on average, fully remote work (compared to fully on-site work) increases the probability of accepting a job offer to the same degree in both metropolises and peripheral municipalities, by around 14 percentage points. What is relevant, remote work remains attractive for peripheral respondents with lower than higher education, as well as for those with poor digital skills.

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