Is your office freezing? Blame men.

If you're a woman who is often cold at work, science now officially has your back. In a study published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change, the two male authors suggest most office thermostat temperatures are set in a gender-biased fashion.

In what The New York Times calls "the Great Arctic Office Conspiracy," most office thermostats use a formula developed in the 1960s — a time when women didn't make up half the workforce — to regulate the temperature. The only problem is that the formula caters to the metabolic rate of a 40-year-old, 154-lb. man. Most women are smaller then men and have more body fat, which lends itself to a slower metabolic rate. The slower a body's metabolic rate, the harder it is to produce heat. What's also not factored into the standard formula is that women sometimes work in skirts and sandals, which widens the gap.

For the men who aren't sold on raising the temperature to give their coworkers a break, consider the effect on global warming. If buildings lower the A.C. just a little to appropriately count for their occupants' comfort, they'll waste less energy and emit less carbon dioxide, the researchers argue.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Ladies, please use this study as an excuse to ditch your blankets and fight the patriarchy.