Stop Burning Your Bras - Women, Work & Menstrual Cycles

It's not often spoken about because we've been conditioned to power through in our power suits like we're about to take over the world because someone started burning their bra all those decades ago,but it's about time that, as women, we acknowledge that we are not equal to men.
We are different. We are women. We have ovaries & we suffer greatly because of this.

In my opinion (& experience with many women over the years), we don't have the same time capacity nor physical capacity to maintain a 60-hour work week. Not a 50-hour work week. Not even a 40-hour work week.

There, I've said it. I've said it to women privately on many occasions, now I'm throwing it out there to the masses. Critics take a seat. And women of the world, for the sake of your health, pay attention.

As women we are not allowed to talk about the physical & emotional pain that goes along with our monthly cycles because:

• It makes people uncomfortable
• We were institutionalized in bygone eras for doing so (google women's hysteria)
• Since the burning of the bras, we're no longer allowed to

Women are the only creature on the planet that can bleed for 7 days & not die. The fact is, it's painful & women are suffering through repeated fortnightly cycles of pain & disability & they're doing so in silence. In bed, with a laptop (thank goodness for work-from-home) working through the nausea, intense body pain, fatigue, brain fog, migraine & depression that occurs at ovulation & then 2 weeks later pre-menstruation.
Because how would it look to our employers if we took a few days off every fortnight to rest & recover? Not good.

It would look terrible. We'd lose income (because 10 days of sick leave per year ain't gonna cut it), we'd lose the respect of our employers & we'd eventually lose our job.

And then we lose the respect of our partners with comments like,
"You're sick again? It's always something with you..."

But it is in fact, 'always something' when it's on a 2-week rotational cycle & even the best of us cannot maintain the same workload as our male counterparts because we are basically sick for a good part of every month.
Therefore, we only have half the time to give. We only have a life half lived.

Our 40 hours per week contribution is the equivalent to an 80 hour a week contribution to a healthy, functioning human without a menstrual cycle.
And any person working 80 hours a week will tell you that:

• I's not sustainable
• It will burn you out in no time leaving you sick & disabled in some way or another

And yes it does. With stress being one of the biggest contributors to the development of hormonal imbalance that leads to extraordinarily painful condition such as endometriosis, fibroids, ovarian cysts, PMS & PMDD, is it really worth the stress of pushing yourself to meet those increased work hours because we've got to climb that corporate ladder?

No, it's not worth it.

My advice to women out there is to accept & embrace the fact that you are a woman. You have ovaries which enable you to bring life into the world. Yes, they hurt but you must care for yourself in a compassionate way because no one else can feel the physical pain that you feel & therefore, no one has the right to judge you.
You are the only one who may determine if & when you need to rest & how many hours a week you can give to your workplace without disturbing that delicate balance within you.
Rest when you need it & step back when you need to.

Stop burning your bras, we don't want equality. What we want is equity, which means fairness. Because we are women. We are not equal. We are different. But we are hugely valuable, capable, powerhouses of creativity & imagination. We are the master manifesters & master multi-taskers.

But we only have half the time to give you. Have compassion & understand that we are suffering in silence to stay on the corporate ladder & pay our bills.

Dee

xx