Ah yes, the ancient workplace tradition of a man watching a woman express a perfectly reasonable opinion and thinking, privately (or not so privately), "must be her hormones." Turns out this is not just a dark joke - it's a documented workplace epidemic.
A new survey from Mira, a fertility tracking and health platform, found that more than a third of men have actually blamed a female colleague's behavior on hormones. Not "she made a great point," not "she seems frustrated by a legitimate problem" - nope. Hormones. Case closed. Next item on the agenda.
The context makes it so much worse
This doesn't exist in a vacuum, either. According to reporting by Fast Company, working women are already navigating a pretty stacked deck. They're 14% less likely to get promoted than their male counterparts. Pay gaps remain stubbornly real. And women who are caregivers at home face disproportionate burnout and are more likely to leave the workforce entirely.
So to recap: women are doing more, getting paid less, promoted less often, and burning out faster - and some of their male colleagues' response is to quietly attribute their behavior to a biological process rather than, say, the very rational frustration of existing in the above conditions.
Why this is more than just annoying
The "hormones" assumption isn't just rude - it's professionally damaging. When a man's behavior is written off as a biological quirk rather than a valid response, it undermines her credibility, her authority, and her chances of being taken seriously in the room. It's a convenient little shortcut that sidesteps actually engaging with what she's saying.
And it has a chilling effect. If women know their emotions or assertiveness might get quietly pathologized rather than respected, they're more likely to self-censor, hold back, or soften their communication style just to be heard. That's a tax that male colleagues simply don't pay.
The fix isn't complicated (even if it feels like it)
No sweeping legislative reform needed here, gents. The bar is genuinely low: when a female colleague expresses frustration, pushes back on an idea, or advocates strongly for her position, try engaging with the actual content of what she's saying. Wild concept, we know.
The data from Mira is a useful little mirror for workplaces that think they've moved past this stuff. Spoiler: a third of men casually practicing armchair gynecology on their colleagues suggests otherwise.
