Should “Cycle Syncing” Dictate Your Working Week?
When Hillary Clinton was running for US president in 2016, there were whispers about whether her female hormones might make her unfit for the role. This sexist dialogue didn’t emerge from thin air. Throughout history, women’s so-called hormonal fragility has been used to justify shutting them out of leadership positions, open roles and promotions (especially while pregnant). After all, physicians once believed that women’s ovaries would become inflamed if they read, and many clinical trials exempted women from studies on the basis that female hormones fluctuate too much. But after years of advocating against gendered labour rhetoric, a holistic wellness movement happening online is asking: should hormones dictate our work week?
Alisa Vitti, an expert in functional nutrition and women’s hormones, released the book In the FLO: Unlock Your Hormonal Advantage and Revolutionize Your Life in 2020. Since then, her ideas around “cycle syncing” have taken the internet by storm. The idea is this: women have a biological rhythm they experience every month that affects productivity, weight, sex drive, energy and mood. While our current 24-hour time productivity cycle bases everything – from what we eat to how we exercise and even how we work – on research that was carried out on men and actively excludes women, Vitti proposed a new monthly cycle for women with four hormonal phases.
According to Vitti, “women have an unknown second biological clock called the infradian rhythm which we experience over the course of our monthly cycle, but it affects way more than your period”. Her Cycle Syncing Method syncs your food type and caloric intake, your workout type and intensity, and your projects to each of the four phases of your cycle: follicular, ovulatory, luteal and menstrual. By working with your hormonal cycle, Vitti claims that you can not only support hormone health, but reduce stress, boost energy, and “live with your unique feminine dynamic energy at the centre of your life”.
Since the release of Vitti’s book, conversations around hormone syncing your workouts and even “cycle syncing” with your business have circulated online. Against the backdrop of the rising wellness dialogue around “healing your hormones”, it’s sparked a dialogue around whether women need different schedules than men when it comes to work. Videos breaking down “good schedules for women” are proliferating, and some creators are even suggesting that women’s “monthly hormonal cycles” mean they aren’t suited for the workplace at all. Vitti herself isn’t advocating to roll back women’s working rights, rather calling for work environments to “become biological rhythm inclusive to women”. “By engaging with the Cycle Syncing Method, women can claim their right to support their biological rhythm,” she says. “Collectively, we will normalise the inclusion of our biological rhythm into our culture and forge a new societal construct that is inherently more gender inclusive.”
Julian Kevon Glover, assistant professor of gender sexuality and women’s studies and dance and choreography at Virginia Commonwealth University, says she’s “heard rumblings” about hormonal scheduling from loved ones. “The accommodations around hormonal needs and effects seem to be taking root amongst those who already have increased flexibility with their work,” she says. “Owners of businesses or entrepreneurs are a subset within a subset of the population, but I haven’t heard from anyone in a corporate job or even non-profit job have these kinds of conversations.” This ultimately raises the question of accessibility in a future hormonal-inclusive world. It also begs the question: will accommodations be made for trans people, non-binary people and those undergoing HRT?
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