Cut the "Women Are Emotional" Labels. Please.

Editor’s Note: This article is a version of a post by Daryl Anne Estill on her LinkedIn page.

Friendly reminder: Women are not more difficult to lead than men.

We are not inherently more emotional, we aren’t overly sensitive, we aren’t aggressive, we don’t turn into hormonal monsters once a month, and we certainly aren’t too (insert ANYTHING demeaning) to be leaders ourselves.

I’ve never thrown my hard hat down so hard it almost bounced off a roof. I’ve never screamed at someone at the top of my lungs or called someone names or cussed someone out. I’ve never destroyed property by ripping it up or punching holes in it. And I’ve certainly never made the women around me feel harassed by my inappropriate comments, advances, etc. 

I’m tired of this narrative. “Women are more emotional.” ”Women are hard to have as direct reports.” “I don’t know how to interact with women at work.” It’s a narrative I’ve heard or been teased about my whole career, along with MANY women, and is still wielded today. Cut it out. 

In fact, according to research conducted by University of Michigan (UM) assistant professor of psychology Adriene Beltz and her colleagues Alexander Weigard, UM assistant professor of psychiatry, and Amy Loviska, a graduate student at Purdue University, men and women are essentially on equal emotional footing. 

The research team followed 142 men and women over 75 days to learn more about their daily emotions, both positive and negative. The women were divided into four groups: one naturally cycling and three others using different forms of oral contraceptives.

The researchers detected fluctuations in emotions three different ways and then compared the sexes. They found little-to-no differences between the men and the various groups of women, suggesting that men’s emotions fluctuate to the same extent as women’s do (although likely for different reasons).

“We also didn’t find meaningful differences between the groups of women, making clear that emotional highs and lows are due to many influences—not only hormones,” Beltz said.

Just sayin. 

About the Author: Daryl Anne Estill is a project manager at TDIndustries where she leads plumbing and mechanical projects in the multi-family market, including design-build.