scorecard
  1. Home
  2. life
  3. news
  4. A viral TikTok captured the dread of 'women's winter' during summer, when office temperatures become frigidly cold and women drown in blankets

A viral TikTok captured the dread of 'women's winter' during summer, when office temperatures become frigidly cold and women drown in blankets

Tanya Chen   

A viral TikTok captured the dread of 'women's winter' during summer, when office temperatures become frigidly cold and women drown in blankets
LifeThelife2 min read
  • Pittsburgh anchor Heather Abraham captured the pain of summer office life for women.
  • On TikTok, she showed her coworkers shivering in blankets in the office as it was 90 degrees outside.

A TikTok perfectly and painfully shows why women can dread heading into the summer: unreasonably frigid office temperatures.

Over the weekend, Pittsburgh anchor and TikToker Heather Abraham shared a video of her coworkers shivering and draped in blankets at their desks to highlight this national crisis.

"Women's Winter has begun," she forebodingly captioned the video, which has been viewed 3.2 million times.

@heatherabraham Women’s Winter has begun. #womenswinter #airconditioner #officelife ♬ Angel - Sarah McLachlan

Abraham takes viewers around the office of the local station KDKA, where she co-hosts the morning show "Pittsburgh Today Live." Her women coworkers — some draped in multiple blankets and jackets — flash her their cold hands and complain about not being able to type because the air conditioning is turned up too high.

"It's 90 outside but inside we're freezing," on-screen text read as the somber Sarah McLachlan song "Angel" plays in the background.

"We're all victims here," Abraham said.

Women typically produce less body heat than men, meaning they're more likely to feel chilled in the workplace, especially in summer when air conditioning is cranked up. However, it doesn't just affect women. At the end of the video, Abraham also shows one male coworker who appears miserable, huddled in a red blanket. "While it's called women's winter, no one is truly excluded," she added.

Commenters wrote that they feel so seen by Abraham's TikTok, and are glad she's shedding light on the important issue.

"God i have never related more to a video in my life," a top commenter wrote.

"Me sitting here watching this with my fireplace on and a blanket because it's so cold," another added.

Some said an upside to the pandemic and working remotely is that women no longer have to face ridiculously frigid office temperatures every day.

"Number one reason I do not miss an office!!!!!!!" a commenter exclaimed; "I endured this for 16 years and the pandemic saved me and now. It was horrible sorry for y'all," another said.

While Abraham's video appears to be in jest, it's believed that cold office climates in the US are rooted in sexism. A 2015 report published by two male scientists suggested that most office buildings have maintained the same temperatures set decades ago based on the metabolic rates of men.

Scientists Boris Kingma and Wouter van Marken Lichtenbelt suggested offices "reduce gender-discriminating bias in thermal comfort."

Insider has reached out to Abraham for further comment.


Advertisement

Advertisement