While certain scientists who shall remain nameless have suggested women are always tearing up at work, a study by the world's leading expert on crying (yes, that's a thing), found that in one profession, men cry at work more often than women do. Professor Ad Vingerhoets at Tilburg University in the Netherlands told The Guardian that while women may cry more easily and more often than men, the only study he has conducted about workplace weeping put men ahead of women.
After gathering data from both male and female psychotherapists, his survey found that 87.4 percent of participants admitted to crying at least once during a therapy session. Contrary to the expected results, Vingerhoets said more male than female therapists owned up to breaking down. So take that Tim Hunt.
Now, whether these findings are due to the fact that the women surveyed underreported their tears to avoid becoming an "overly emotional" statistic or that the men surveyed actually did cry more frequently doesn't matter. A different study of a variety of professionals reported that 41 percent of women and only 9 percent of men cried at work over the past year, but that still doesn't change the fact that the prevailing stigma against crying in the workplace is supremely sexist.
Before you accuse me of gender essentialism here, it's not that every woman is automatically more weepy than every man, but on the whole, women do produce more of the "crying hormone" prolactin than men do. So regardless of whether you're a lady who sobs uncontrollably, sheds a few tears, or is stone faced 4 lyfe, we need to band together to stop the correlation between weakness and the expression of emotion. It's patriarchal thinking that hurts both men and women, and it's gotta go. Crying at work doesn't mean you aren't equipped to deal with an intense workload or tough decisions. It just means that clear liquid spilled out of your eyes when you were particularly frustrated or upset.
On the plus side, at least we now have major feminist COO's opening up about crying at work and normalizing such "emotional outbursts" (thank you, Sheryl Sandberg), so no one should be ashamed of showing that they're the slightest bit human if they're dedicating five days a week (and more) to an organization. That said, don't be surprised if people still have prejudicial views about getting misty in the workplace. It could be a few decades before crying in front of your co-workers and boss is no big deal, but with any luck, one day it'll be par for the course for men and women to express themselves as they see fit.
Images: Chris Costes/Flickr; Giphy
