A recent study suggests reasons why men and women prefer different ambient temperatures. Articles:
http://www.wired.com/2015/08/men-women-battle-office-thermostat/
http://fortune.com/2015/08/03/women-office-freezing-cold/
The actual paper:
http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nclimate2741.html
Presumably, car companies have known this for a while, since they offer (more expensive) cars with dual zone climate control systems.
It would be great to work in an office where every room is at the same temperature and stays that way all day. At least you could dress for that.
But in the real world, how many people have that privilege?
Various areas of my office are cold, colder and coldest. You can actually feel the temperature drop as you walk through.
FWIW, the women in my office (business casual dress code) don’t wear tank tops, short skirts, etc. We dress in pants and sweaters. We still freeze.
Its not just offices. Visit an assisted living facility at dinner time in August. You’ll see the residents arriving at the dining room wearing winter coats and sweaters and gloves, while the staff is in t shirts and swim suits because the thermostats are set at 80.
I used to wear a down jacket in the conference room of dh’s lab when he was in grad school. The rest of the lab was at a reasonable (though somewhat chilly) temperature, that room was just badly designed. I do think it’s an issue that men’s business dress has historically meant that men are wearing winter clothes year round. It may have made sense in northern Europe, it’s a terrible waste of energy in most of the US.
I am a female who cannot tolerate heat. When I was working in offices, I was always devoutly thankful that those women huddled in their little cardigans were NOT the ones in charge of the thermostat! A person who is cold can always wear a sweater. There is a limit to the amount that the rest of us can remove. 
I am a female who is always hot. Those who are cold can always put on a sweater. There’s only so much those who are hot can take off.
I am a hot potato too. What I’ve noticed is that I can sweat in a cold room in the summer but flowing air (a fan) keeps that at bay no matter what the specific temp is. Keep the thermostat reasonably cool and have a few fans around for everyone who likes them.
Comment on the study: I thought it was silly to talk about “metabolic rates”, which they pull from another source. Cooling and heat levels in offices were designed for men wearing suits.
In my office area, I have both a desk fan for cooling and a floor mini-heater near my feet for heating. I tend to run warm and will often use the gym at lunch so appreciate my fan. The other ladies in my office are always perpetually COLD - long pants, heavy sweaters, 12 months of the year! Winter it is often cold in the office. Another reason to get off your office chair and move around several times a day!
When I was still working, most of my coworkers were women, and they always liked the air conditioning to be very cold. Yes I could put on layers, but what I really wanted to do was to be wearing winter clothes.
I’ve learned that in the Southwest, air conditioning is much more pleasant than here in the East. I don’t have to carry around my jacket to put on every time I go inside a building. But here in the east all public buildings feel like a refrigerator. I did some research on this a few weeks ago when there was an article in our local paper about this very issue. And I did find that many public buildings need to keep the indoor temperature at a low enough point to remove the humidity from the atmosphere so mold does not grow. That was the only thing that I read that made a modicum of sense as to why we keep our buildings so cold in the summer.
My feelings exactly.
Perhaps true in the 50’s, but a rather illogical statement with all the new buildings going up and the fact that many older office buildings are being rehabbed.
When our company moved to our current digs, a 10 year-old building, our architect – a woman – never asked how many guys in suits we were planning on hiring, but how many bodies – period - and the type of lighting that would be occupying the space. Then her hvac plan was tweaked for the sunny side of the building.
While the thermostats are ‘set’, they are easily manipulated (by those of us who have the key).
When I was in middle school there was one teacher I had who was notorious for cooling the room to insane levels (always 62). In the close-to-summer months in Florida, if you walk into a room that’s 62 almost everyone’s response is “Oh my god it’s freezing in here.”
But other than that one teachers classroom, I don’t think I’ve ever really noticed overuse of AC. A few places I thought they kept a bit hot but it generally wasn’t intolerably hot. When the temperature feels inappropriate, most of the time it’s because it’s heated a bit too hot in the winter, not cooled too cold in the summer or heated/cooled too little.
It’s not illogical at all - the design standards were developed in the 50s when A/C became available. The newest thinking is for thermostats and/or windows (and lighting too) to be much more easily manipulated by the occupants as studies have shown that users will generally use less energy if they have a choice in the matter.
So says the architect.
^^you just reinforced my point mathmom.
One of my supervisors grew so frustrated with the constant tug of wars over the thermostat that he had maintenance box it in and put a lock on it so only the supervisor could turn off the A/C. That made most of us happy, but one or two were forever shivering.
Even in “business casual” settings men still usually wear more clothing then women: always long pants, always shoes and socks, and often long-sleeved shirts. Compare that to a woman who might wear a dress, no hose, and open-toe shoes. She has bare legs, very little on her feet, and odds are, the material her dress is made from isn’t nearly as thick as Dockers and polo shirt.
The solution? I don’t have one – other than to recommend women prone to getting cold to explore summer cashmere 
And I say this as someone who has complained plenty about being cold in the office. I was one known for always having a couple of pashminas in my desk to cover up those goosebumpy arms and legs.
My office has two temperatures - freezing cold or stifling hot - they are one degree apart on the thermostat. I usually keep it on freezing cold and run a space heater intermittently.
It’s like my shower.
The worst office I ever had was when I worked for the State. I worked in the back of the state library and it was FREEZING year round. Men and women alike would wear sweaters in the middle of 100-degree summer days. I swear we could’ve fixed the budget problems in MI just by turning down the thermostat. I used to take my breaks by going up to the roof just to thaw.
Most of my offices have been colder than I’d have liked but I’m always cold. But I’ve been lucky in that I’ve only had to wear business casual at two jobs (one at the state and one was in a school so I was running around anyway)- the rest have been casual and it’s easy to layer.