"Women take more sick days due to menstruation": N

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what do you think?

I'd be surprised if men took many sick days due to menstruation.

I've been working for about 20 years now, and only one time I found a co-worker who would not go to work during her period. But it was because she had a problem and she had hemorragies. I am a woman and I have never taken a day off due to my menstruation.

I think it's a lame attempt at misogyny.

Women also take sick days for headaches, medical appointments, cramps, depression, shopping, pregnancy, sore feet, and because they're angry with their husbands or boyfriends.

Some even take sick days when they're sick.

He's wrong. He just made an assumption that is not backed up by statistics. It also isn't backed up by anecdotal evidence (not that that counts). My period started over 30 years ago and I've never needed any sick time (or time off from school when I was young) because of it. The only woman I ever knew at work who took time for this was a woman who ultimately turned out to have an ovarian tumour. It just isn't necessary when the system is healthy and functioning properly.

It is true for very, very rare cases and is true for a few individuals and not women as a whole. I really would not worry about the opinion of this CEO. There are no facts and figures that support menstruation as a factor in more sick days.

It is very upsetting since menstruation is something a woman cannot control (even with birth control). The CEO should have shut his mouth before saying something so insensitive and something he obviously has no knowledge about.

There's something in what he's saying - women don't get paid less due to sick-days as a result of menstruation, but they may get paid less and miss-out on promotions because employers are less keen on employing women because of women-specific issues such as maternity leave, and because if women take more sick days they're less favoured by employers.

Women do tend to suffer more problems as a result of their cycles, such as headaches and IBS, and the majority of women will suffer from dysmenorrhea at some point in their lives, which is defined as 'pain during menstruation that interferes with daily activities'. So women may in theory need more sick-days than men - effecting productivity, and in turn meaning employers are perhaps less likely to promote women due to how this effects their work or because too many sick-days adding up will see women more likely to face disciplinary action for sickness. This reminds me of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) who wanted 12 days annual menstrual leave from Toyota in 2005 - they wanted additional days sickness to prevent women from facing disciplinary for women-specific monthly occurring illness out of their control, however if this had gone through it'd mean employers would be less likely to hire women.

Women who do take sick-days for menstrual problems shouldn't be shamed.
A couple of replies here seem to imply a sense of disapproval over women who do take sick-days for menstrual related problems, short of haemorrhage or ovarian tumour. I feel no guilt what-so-ever in having taken days off work due to menorrhagia, I'm sure my employers would have also preferred me at home on the odd occasion rather than bleeding all over the office, although granted I made up for the work I missed. Many menstrual problems are seen as 'part of being a woman' so many women will not know how to prevent them, or for some it may not be easy to prevent these problems, menstrual problems are just as real as any other health problem - why should women be expected to suffer?

IF menstrual problems do cause problems with productivity, what about other days of a woman's cycle?
Menstruation = reflective, so better at reviewing work.
Pre-ovulation = dynamic, so better at learning, clarity, concentration, researching, structural thinking, and better physical stamina.
Ovulation = expressive, so better at communication, productivity, and teamwork.
Pre-menstrual = creative, so can think more out-of-the-box, more assertive and better at problem solving.
Men may be more consistent throughout the month, however women are better emotionally and mentally equipped at different points in their cycle to do certain tasks thus potentially increasing their productivity. Many employers are currently looking into getting their female employers to share information about their cycles or sending them to cycle-specific lectures so that their female employers can work in such a way to take full advantage of the benefits of their cycle to improve office productivity.

Women shouldn't be discriminated against - I'm fairly certain Thompson is in agreement - but if women are taking more days off due to menstruation (or due to pregnancy/maternity leave) then of course this may be a contributing factor to why women are paid less.

Some women have difficult periods. I have cramped during my periods before and I still went to work but for some women it's worse. That's why I went back to using birth control and that still didn't get rid of the pain much so I took some pills, aspirin I think, anything that helped with cramps. But I was lucky I didn't suffer that much. I had no idea women were paid less. I never took many sick days. But now that I am a parent I may end up start taking days off because of my child so that could be another reason why. But don't men take time off too for their kids? Now I can see why work places would rather hire men.

People are entitled to take sick days when they are not able to properly undertake their work responsibilities.

Now, some women might well present symptoms of dysmenorrhea of sufficient significance that they can't work. This is no different than a person who presents a migraine, or any other sort of debilitating pain.

But it is logically fallacious to project the medical circumstances of a subset of women and project that onto all women. There are many men who require much more sick time than otherwise healthy women who have occassional or regular dysmenorrhea.

It is the obligation of the employer to maintain a fair and supportive work environment for all employees, reagardless of the employees' sex or general health.

Women do take more sick day but I don't think issues with menstruation is the biggest reason why. Women generally are the primary caregiver of their children so they're much more likely to take sick leave when their child is sick or has a doctor's appointment or some other issue. Women are also much more likely to go see a doctor than man.

Where I work, the women use up their sick days faster than the men, whether or not they have any children living at home. Women seem more inclined to "take care of themselves" in this way than men, who seem to believe that their jobs are more important than their health. This also means that when the men really need to take extended time off for illness or surgery, they have ample time on the books to do so.

Many of the women want employees to pool their sick days, while the men do not. This seems to uphold the idea that the women want to burn through their own sick days, and then start using up the sick days that the male employees have earned for themselves. This is not a good practice, since the "pool" of sick days could be severely depleted by the end of the year, and all employees must then either work sick or stay home without pay.

I see no evidence in the link posted by the OP which backs up the bold claim. Until good evidence is obtained, then this idea remains just an idea. I suspect that it is a silly idea and the man cited in the link by the OP is being a bigot.

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Health is a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity I am not a jigsaw, I am a free man !

Diagnosed under the DSM5 rules with autism spectrum disorder, under DSM4 psychologist said would have been AS (299.80) but I suspect that I am somewhere between 299.80 and 299.00 (Autism) under DSM4.

I'd tend to think that women would have to suck it up and go to work when they don't feel good so they can get the bills paid and keep a good performance record just like men do.

Just comes across as another attempt to make sure women get the shorter end of the stick.

How could holding women to the same standards of performance and attendance as men be considered "the short end of the stick"?

Or should women be given "extra points" merely for having their reproductive organs on the inside?