Debate heats up over ‘sexist’ office temperatures

New York gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon launched a social-media debate when she quipped Wednesday that office temperatures are “notoriously sexist,” according to The New York Times.

The question of whether the thermostat setting caters to mostly to the comfort of men and to the disadvantage of chilly women arose from Ms. Nixon’s first debate with Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is notorious for expecting venues to be frigid.

Ms. Nixon’s camp requested that the temperature be set to a 76 degrees, according to the newspaper, which reported that “research lends support to the Nixon campaign’s claim that office temperatures are based on male preferences.”

The article refers to a 2015 study that revealed that temperatures in most office buildings are set based on “a decades-old formula that relies on the metabolic rates of men.”