And working from home works well for others. Both options should be available as part of a flexible working policy for an organisation.  But workers currently only have the right to request flexible working (and then this is only for those with children under a certain age).  

True you could take your employer to tribunal if you are turned down but that's a lengthy process to go through that will undoubtedly damage the relationship between employer and employee.

Ad astra per aspera

That's common experience.  I do have a friend who has flexible working arrangements, and is able to use this to fit around his wife's shift work and to be at home for his children when she works.  

It works really well for them and it means that both parents are able to spend time with the children and there is a fairly equal division of care, work and household stuff. But this is an exception to the rule.

Ad astra per aspera

When we moved to Switzerland, it turned out that the laundry room in our building was open from 8AM to 7PM Monday to Friday, plus 9AM-1PM on Saturdays. The latter slot being completely unavailable. When my mom complained to the building management they told her that if she were a proper, normal woman she wouldn't have any difficulties with that. A few years later she noticed that male IT folks at the company were making more money. She asked for a raise and her boss said he saw no reason to pay a woman more. She contacted a headhunting agency, got a job for twice as much money at a big Swiss multinational. Unfortunately she was the first woman in the (large) Geneva offices of that company whose duties were neither secretarial nor janitorial. A fair number of men there made it clear that they didn't see that as a good development.