Womens' Day Shower Thoughts

Happy International Womens Day!

In the spirit of the day, consider implementing these hot takes at work, to continue furthering progress for both Women and the Men that truly support them.

1. Menstruation days off, Miscarriage or Menopause leaves

Periods can be as painful as heart attacks but the difference is that men usually experience heart attacks once in their life and the chance of dying is high. Women have these once a month. I once had to duck out of a Klarna meeting (thank you Benjamin Bowler for covering for me- best ally ever) because I legit had to throw up from the pain.

Miscarriages are hugely emotionally AND physically taxing. A woman might be going through a hormonal rollercoaster and bleeding profusely (we're talking gushing) from a miscarriage for two weeks. TWO. WEEKS. Menopause is also a huge life event with similar hormonal rollercoasters that impact sleep or extreme temperature regulation that men can't even fathom and we as a society don't talk about. Normalize making these out of office events; write it explicit into policy so women feel comfortable taking the needed time!

2. Work bathrooms should be stocked with tampons, pads, body wipes, and ibuprofen.

Every woman has found herself in a vulnerable state where she is caught off guard and is now seeing blood while she's on the throne, or she's having hot flashes and sweating through her shirt - sorry but this is a real scenario so you should know. Her purse could be at her desk and/or she's not prepared w any of these items. Stocking these in work bathrooms is HUGELY helpful, plus tampons are a wildnerness survivor device anyone should have on hand for an apocalypse.

I'm so lucky that both Highnote and Airbnb have had such smartly thought through bathrooms, and I've been able to maintain my dignity.

3. Both Mat AND Pat leave for all.

I can't believe we still have to request this one in 2024. But here's a different take: Women not only need time to heal from a traumatic medical event, THEY NEED THEIR PARTNERS to help during this time. Partners need to be there to wash all the bottles (newborns don't have immune systems!); they need to rock and put the newborns down for all the naps (newborns don't just sleep willy nilly!). Women may only be able to sleep 3 hours at a time if they breastfeed because newborns feed 3 hours at a time- this is for 24 hours and for MONTHS! I wasn't even human until 4 months had passed.

4. Virtual or In-Person assistant benefits to women or new parents

Laundry, cleaning, grocery planning and buying, doctors visits, and meal planning and execution, all disproportionately affect women when managing a household and/or a new family member. Thus, implementing such benefits will disproportionately improve the lives of women, but also improve the lives of family units overall, which translates to company loyalty. After all, the 40 hour work week assumed that you had a wife at home to help with all of the tasks above.

5. Performance Review Frameworks need to adapt for different circumstances.

No one can be mathematically/objectively equal to a woman who experiences all that I have mentioned above. Your performance review frameworks should not expect a woman to come back from mat leave and be able to achieve the same impact as women or a man who has stayed at work for all 12 months, and had not birthed a child where she has lacked sleep for the past 4-6 months.

Instead, aim to make sure policies are equitable; an easy solution is to GIVE OPTIONS. Ask her if she wants to be put up for that promotion she was on track for before she left if it's deserved (the only reason why people tolerate performance reviews), or exempt her from performance review- use inflation as the financial metric for compensation and call it a day. This will be significant time/effort saved for all parties.

Bonus Round: If the world actually succeeds in controlling womens' bodies (ex: making abortions illegal, ruling IVF eggs and embryos as an act of murder when they are defrosted, instead of property destruction) then policies must be updated to reflect as such.

• Women on their periods, should be able to take bereavement leave
• Women experiencing miscarriages should receive life insurance payouts
• Women should begin Mat Leave as soon as they hit 6 weeks of pregnancy, and therefore Mat leave needs to be extended because of the long term time they're taking care of a life
• Women should be able to drive in carpool lanes when pregnant
• Women's health insurance should be updated and utilized as soon as they are pregnant, as opposed to when a child is born on their due date
• Women should be able to deduct more and receive more tax credits in the year when they are pregnant or have a miscarriage

.....just to name a few.

If you made it this far - just wanted to say thank you for reading. Drop me a line and share your thoughts!