There are weeks when a woman can lead meetings effortlessly, answer emails quickly, socialise after work, exercise, cook dinner, and still feel emotionally available to everyone around her.
Then there are other weeks where the same woman feels tired by 10am, overwhelmed by noise, irritated by office politics, emotionally sensitive, bloated, anxious, and unable to focus on simple tasks she handled easily just days earlier.
Yet modern corporate culture still expects women to perform exactly the same way every single day. Part of the reason this disconnect exists is because most modern workplaces were historically designed around a male hormonal rhythm, which operates roughly on a 24-hour cycle. Energy, hormones, and recovery tend to reset daily. Women, however, operate on a more complex hormonal cycle that unfolds across roughly 28 days, meaning energy, focus, mood, and social capacity can naturally shift across an entire month.
That disconnect is becoming harder to ignore.
Over the last few years, conversations around women’s hormonal health have moved from wellness circles into boardrooms, podcasts, leadership spaces, and even HR departments. One of the most influential voices behind this shift is Alisa Vitti, author of WomanCode, who argues that many women are trying to work against their biology instead of understanding it.
Whether one agrees with every detail of cycle syncing or not, the bigger point feels difficult to dismiss. Women are often expected to function according to a linear productivity model built around consistency, repetition, and constant output, while many women naturally experience changing energy, focus, mood, and social capacity across the month.
For many women reading this, especially professionals, entrepreneurs, mothers, or caregivers, this is probably not new information. The difference is that many women quietly blame themselves for it. They assume inconsistency means laziness. They assume emotional fatigue means weakness. They assume needing rest means they are falling behind. But in reality, many women are simply experiencing hormonal shifts that affect the brain, nervous system, metabolism, and emotional regulation in very real ways. The problem is not always the cycle itself. The problem is often the shame around it.
In many African and diaspora households, women are taught to push through everything. Pain is minimised. PMS is joked about. Mood changes are dismissed. Rest is treated as indulgence instead of maintenance.
At the same time, women are expected to excel professionally, maintain homes, raise children, regulate everyone else emotionally, stay physically attractive, and remain productive throughout all of it. Something needs to eventually give.
What I find particularly interesting is not just the science behind hormonal phases, but how practical this awareness could become if women stopped treating themselves like broken machines. For example, during ovulation, many women naturally feel more outward-facing because biologically this is when the body wants to attract a mate. Communication tends to feel easier. Confidence rises. Social interaction feels lighter. For women in corporate environments, this may actually be the ideal time for presentations, networking events, interviews, difficult conversations, pitching ideas, content creation, or leadership visibility.
Many women already do this unconsciously, because their bodies have deep inner knowledge. They just never call it strategy.
Then comes the luteal phase, the week or so before menstruation, which many women describe as mentally and emotionally heavier. Concentration can feel harder. Patience becomes thinner. The body often demands more rest and nutrition. Emotionally, women may become more reflective, analytical, and less tolerant of unnecessary stress. This is because biologically and subconsciously the body is preparing to nest.
Yet this is often the exact moment many women begin criticising themselves. They think they are becoming emotional, difficult, lazy, or unmotivated. What if that phase was not designed for maximum social performance at all? What if it was actually a period better suited for quieter work, administration, reviewing projects, reducing overstimulation, planning finances, tying up loose ends, or spending more time at home instead of overcommitting socially?
Even at home, the implications are interesting. There may be phases where batch cooking, meal prepping, social gatherings, and family activities feel energising and natural. Then there may be phases better suited for slower evenings, earlier nights, reduced social obligations, and protecting emotional bandwidth.
This does not mean women should organise their lives obsessively around hormones. Nor does it mean women are incapable during certain phases. Women lead companies, run households, build businesses, and manage crises every single day regardless of their cycle. But understanding patterns may reduce unnecessary self-hatred. That distinction matters. Because many high-performing women are not actually failing. They are exhausted from expecting themselves to feel identical every day of the month.
And in corporate spaces, this becomes even more relevant. The modern workplace still rewards visibility, constant responsiveness, long hours, endless meetings, and emotional neutrality. Women often adapt by suppressing what their bodies are trying to communicate. Coffee replaces rest. Sugar replaces nourishment. Burnout becomes normalised. Then women quietly wonder why they feel disconnected from themselves.
I also think this conversation matters in Zambia because discussions around women’s health are still often treated as private rather than strategic. Yet women make up a huge part of the workforce, entrepreneurship landscape, healthcare system, education sector, and informal economy. Understanding how women function is not a luxury wellness conversation anymore. It affects productivity, burnout, leadership, relationships, and long-term health.
Perhaps the deeper lesson here is that women are not inconsistent. Many women are cyclical. There is wisdom in learning what kind of work, conversations, environments, and expectations suit different phases of life and energy, instead of forcing the same version of ourselves every day. The future of workplace wellness is not only be gym memberships, productivity apps, and motivational talks. It may also involve teaching women that understanding their bodies is not unprofessional. It is self-awareness.
Kaajal Vaghela is a sportswear designer and diabetes wellness consultant with over three decades of lived experience managing Type 1 diabetes. Having previously served as Chairperson of the Lusaka branch of the Diabetes Association of Zambia, she remains a passionate advocate for breaking down myths and building awareness about diabetes. For more personalised coaching or corporate wellness workshops, visit: www.kaajalvaghela.com and for any feedback: [email protected])
