Let women be weepy at work.
The week's news at a glance.
United Kingdom
Helen Rumbelow
The Times
Feminists need to stand up for the right to cry at the office, said Helen Rumbelow in the London Times. Men lose their cool at work all the time. But if a woman breaks down, her career is over. That’s because for a man, getting angry means getting loud and aggressive, which makes for an unpleasant scene but is at least seen as strong. Women more often express anger and frustration through tears, which are interpreted as weak. According to one study, women cry an average of 5.3 times a month, while men cry just 1.4 times (and for shorter periods). Since men shaped the norms of the modern workplace, “anger is okay, crying is not.” But that’s plainly just as sexist as judging managers on their upper-body strength. Of course, “I am not arguing for rivers of tears to irrigate Britain’s workplaces.” That would make everyone uncomfortable. But crying is no more childish than throwing a temper tantrum. Isn’t it fair to ask that women’s “emotional outpouring” be judged “equally with its male equivalent”?
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
How Mike Johnson is rendering the House ‘irrelevant’Talking Points Speaker has put the House on indefinite hiatus
-
Lazarus: Harlan Coben’s ‘embarrassingly compelling’ thrillerThe Week Recommends Bill Nighy and Sam Claflin play father-and-son psychiatrists in this ‘precision-engineered’ crime drama
-
Dutch center-left rises in election as far-right fallsSpeed Read The country’s other parties have ruled against forming a coalition