Author ORCID Identifier
Semester
Spring
Date of Graduation
2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Type
PhD
College
Chambers College of Business and Economics
Department
Management
Committee Chair
Kayla Follmer
Committee Member
Xiaoxiao Hu
Committee Member
James Field
Committee Member
Katina Sawyer
Abstract
Despite growing attention to menstrual health, organizational research has largely overlooked how workplace conditions shape menstrual experiences. Dominant perspectives frame menstruation as an individual issue that negatively affects work, neglecting how features of the work environment – such as gender-based harassment and access to menstrual-related infrastructure – contribute to menstrual distress. Addressing this gap, this dissertation adopts a bidirectional perspective, examining how social and material workplace conditions shape menstrual distress, defined as the extent to which menstrual symptoms interfere with daily functioning. Drawing on the transactional model of stress and objectification theory, I hypothesized that gender-based harassment would predict menstrual distress directly and indirectly through self-objectification and menstrual concealment, and that infrastructural neglect would moderate these associations. These hypotheses were tested across two samples of working menstruators: a three-wave Prolific sample and a cross-sectional direct recruitment sample. Across analyses, gender-based harassment emerged as a robust direct predictor of menstrual distress. However, the hypothesized serial mediation through self-objectification and concealment was not supported. Instead, findings suggest that menstrual concealment operates as a habitual, socially conditioned practice that may be strategically deployed in identity-threatening environments. Exploratory analyses revealed that concealment attenuated the association between harassment and distress, indicating a context-dependent buffering effect. Contrary to hypotheses, infrastructural neglect did not moderate focal relationships but emerged as a direct predictor of distress in follow-up exploratory analyses and a central theme in qualitative findings, highlighting its role as a material constraint on menstrual management at work. Together, these findings advance theory by integrating physiological, psychological, and structural perspectives on menstrual distress and challenge individualistic framings of menstruation in organizations. This work underscores the importance of addressing both gender-based harassment and workplace infrastructure to improve employee well-being and advance menstrual equity.
Recommended Citation
Miller, Mackenzie J., "The Bleeding Edge of Misogyny: How Gender-Based Harassment and Infrastructural Neglect Shape Menstrual Distress" (2026). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 13220.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/13220
Included in
Industrial and Organizational Psychology Commons, Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons, Social Psychology Commons