It’s summer in the Northern Hemisphere, and here in St. Louis, we’re enjoying our usual high temperatures in the 80s and 90s. Even though it’s hot out, inside our office, many of my co-workers are donning jackets or covering up with blankets.
While some males are covering up (including me), it’s disproportionately women who seem to need the extra layers to fight off our office A/C. And they’re not alone; summertime in office buildings is dubbed by some as the “women’s winter.” Here’s an amusing TikTok video documenting this effect. And this YouTube video is pretty funny:
So, is it true? Are women generally colder than men? The answer: Yes. But there is variability.
A study from 2015 examined office buildings and their temperature settings and found that “Current indoor climate regulations are based on a thermal comfort model developed in the 1960s that uses standard metabolic rate values based on an average male. This may overestimate female metabolic rate by up to 35%.” That 2015 study determined that “In general, females prefer a higher room temperature than males in home and office situations” and that males prefer a 71-degree room temperature while females prefer 77 degrees.
Another study from earlier this year found that women generally have a lower core temperature, which resembles an “arctic shift” compared to men. This means they tend to feel colder than men and thus prefer higher ambient temperature settings. This 2024 study also determined that this “arctic shift” isn’t necessarily due to gender but is driven by body composition.
Those with larger bodies and more muscle burn more calories at rest than smaller or less muscular individuals, and this greater amount of calorie burning creates a higher core temperature. Fat plays a role, too — it is insulating, but it also can prevent heat from our cores from reaching our extremities.
So, a person’s ideal room temperature is based on the interaction of multiple factors: metabolic rate, body surface area, and body fat percentage. These factors tend to conspire so that women are more sensitive to the cold than men, but there’s overlap with some men tending to feel cold and some women who are always warm.