Women face discrimination on several different fronts at work. They are 14% less likely to be promoted than their male colleagues. They still face pay gaps. And they suffer professionally for being caregivers at home, facing higher levels of burnout and a higher incidence of leaving the workforce altogether.
According to a new report, working women also face unfair assumptions about their health from men.
A new survey from Mira, a fertility tracking and health site, found that more than a third (37%) of men surveyed said they attributed a female colleague’s behavior to their hormones. Even more men (39%) said that they expect women to manage their emotions “differently” than men at work.
Perhaps most troubling, nearly a quarter—23% of the men surveyed—said they’ve questioned a female colleague’s leadership decisions based on assumptions about their hormonal state. Yikes.
While, of course, people who get periods can experience physical and emotional distress monthly, that doesn’t mean they are incapable of controlling themselves at work. In fact, it may even mean (given that the average age of the onset of menstruation is now 11.9 years old) that people with periods have years of experience when it comes to managing emotional distress.
To that point, one 2020 survey published by the U.K. job search website Totaljobs found that the majority of male respondents said they were more than twice as likely as their female coworkers to yell or even quit their jobs due to uncontrolled emotions.
However, there were some positive findings. Men largely acknowledged that period pain can impact a woman’s mental and physical health: 86% said they realize those unique challenges exist.
Perhaps not surprisingly, nearly one-third (31%) of men said their education didn’t prepare them to understand women’s health. Unfortunately, the information gap doesn’t seem likely to improve. Only two-thirds of Gen Zers said they felt educated about the topic, versus 70% of millennials. Encouragingly, 83% said they would teach their sons about women’s health.
So, while women still face all kinds of judgment at work that men don’t have to deal with, the good news is that in 2026, many men want to do better.
