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A media company in Mumbai is giving women a day off during their periods

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Re: A media company in Mumbai is giving women a day off during their periods

#21

Post by fredley »

bigmanwalter wrote: post #16
fredley wrote: post #2

Stuff like this, while done with good intentions, can threaten to entrench discrimination by having different sets of rules and expectations for people based on their gender. A better solution would be to give 12 extra holiday days per year to everyone, but make it known that it's acceptable to take them under those circumstances.

Men don't get a day of pain and cramps each month so I don't see why we should get the day off. Periods aren't fun, and I don't think men deserve a day at the golf course in exchange.

It's a tricky one, but on the whole I'm against 'positive' discrimination. It's still discrimination, it can still create contempt and undermine hard work (they're only in that job because they're [a], a smarter [b] probably didn't get the job, etc.)

It applies to maternity/paternity leave too. Until maternity and paternity leave are required to be equal by law, there will be a bias against hiring women, due to the simple mathematics. If the 'risk' is equal for a man or a woman, the bias is eliminated.

Re: A media company in Mumbai is giving women a day off during their periods

#22

Post by adrianN »

buro9 wrote: post #19
fredley wrote: post #2

Stuff like this, while done with good intentions, can threaten to entrench discrimination by having different sets of rules and expectations for people based on their gender. A better solution would be to give 12 extra holiday days per year to everyone, but make it known that it's acceptable to take them under those circumstances.

> based on their gender Based on their sex. http://www.med.monash.edu.au/gendermed/sexandgender.html > Sex refers to biological differences; chromosomes, hormonal profiles, internal and external sex organs. > Gender describes the characteristics that a society or culture delineates as masculine or feminine. May as well link some script from the Life of Brian to demonstrate that you can identify (gender) as a woman if…

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gender

Re: A media company in Mumbai is giving women a day off during their periods

#23

Post by ygra »

epx wrote: post #11

My wife has two very bad and painful days (the first two) every period. I am not sure how she would handle if she had a job.

Sick leave? As far as I know that's exactly what it's for. It also has the benefit of not discriminating whether it's period cramps, migraines, a broken leg, food poisoning, or depression.

EDIT: I'm German. Sick leave is completely separate from vacation days here and not limited (although you get less money after six weeks because your health insurance takes over from your employer). Generally I find that one of the only acceptable solution to the problem at hand. Giving half your employees extra days off is a bad idea, conflating vacation and sick leave is a bad idea, and forcing employees to come to work when they're unable to is a bad idea.

Re: A media company in Mumbai is giving women a day off during their periods

#24

Post by matt4077 »

Traubenfuchs wrote: post #4

That's sexism though.

Now I'm wondering if you consider it sexist against men, who are denied this benefit. Or against women, who are (once again) stereotyped as weak and unreliable?

I guess the answer is "both". But I can't shake the feeling that this is actually much worse for women than it is for men.

In principle, I don't even have a problem with some groups getting a few more days off, or other special arrangements. Some countries have rules for minority religions, for example, allowing them to celebrate their respective holidays. But I can't really imagine any women thinking that this would be a good idea.

Re: A media company in Mumbai is giving women a day off during their periods

#26

Post by robertlagrant »

jlebrech wrote: post #17
ryanx435 wrote: post #5

interesting. If this ever became law, it would incentivize hiring men over women because you'll get 5% less value out of hiring a woman employee. the math: lets assume that there are 260 working days in a year. women get 12 extra holidays per year for their periods, which means they only work 248 out of the 260 days. 248/260 = 95.4%. very interesting indeed.

that's the assumption that a desk job is 8 hours straight productivity. but manual labour might hedge towards male employment, that's true.

The numbers scale regardless of what percentage of the day everyone "really works".

Re: A media company in Mumbai is giving women a day off during their periods

#27

Post by fredley »

nickonline wrote: post #20

This viewpoint is amazing. It's so brilliantly obvious that it's an American saying this statement due to the horrible laws that are so far in favour of the business it's not funny. In Australia (for example) where I am, annually we have 20 days of leave and 10 sick days by law. Those sick days are available for use for any personal issue be it period pain or mental health. I understand in Europe the leave schedules…

I'm British, FYI :-)

My suggestion, while obviously extreme (flexible scheduling as mentioned elsewhere in this thread would be a much more reasonable 'solution') wouldn't fly in the USA as nobody takes their holiday days anyway!

Re: A media company in Mumbai is giving women a day off during their periods

#28

Post by [deleted] »

robertlagrant wrote: post #14
ryanx435 wrote: post #5

interesting. If this ever became law, it would incentivize hiring men over women because you'll get 5% less value out of hiring a woman employee. the math: lets assume that there are 260 working days in a year. women get 12 extra holidays per year for their periods, which means they only work 248 out of the 260 days. 248/260 = 95.4%. very interesting indeed.

Maternity leave in theory has the same disadvantage, as generally women take this more than paternity leave (though I think that's changing) - it can be combatted by public denigration of companies that consider men to be preferable hires on the basis of lower risk of disruption and lower costs. Thus I don't think it'd be a problem.

[deleted]

Re: A media company in Mumbai is giving women a day off during their periods

#29

Post by leroy_masochist »

bigmanwalter wrote: post #16
fredley wrote: post #2

Stuff like this, while done with good intentions, can threaten to entrench discrimination by having different sets of rules and expectations for people based on their gender. A better solution would be to give 12 extra holiday days per year to everyone, but make it known that it's acceptable to take them under those circumstances.

Men don't get a day of pain and cramps each month so I don't see why we should get the day off. Periods aren't fun, and I don't think men deserve a day at the golf course in exchange.

Neither do women who are done menstruating. So employers should hand out a questionnaire to all the women asking who still gets their period? I mean, that's a pretty normal question to ask your coworkers, I'm sure HR would be cool with it.

This is way, way easier to just implement as one extra sick day per person per month.

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