Italy wants to offer women menstrual leave

Italy wants to offer women menstrual leaveItaly wants to offer women menstrual leaveItalys Parliament is currently debating a proposed law to mandate three days of paid menstrual leave each month to female employees.If you are part of the 20% of women who experience debilitating periods that interfere with daily activities, treating periods like sick leave may sound great. The Italian edition of Marie Claire described the draft law as a standard-bearer of progress and social sustainability.But offering leave may only make menstruationmora stigmatized than it already is.Employers may be more reluctant to hire menstruating workersBased on statistics of the Italian workforce, if you bleed, you may be asked to leave.With only61% of Italian women working, Italy already has one of thelowest European rates female participation in the workforce. The European average is 72%. This law may make it harder for Italian women to join the workforcebased on previous dataof how pregnant women in Italy are treated. Italy offers five months of paid maternity leave, but pregnant workers are more at risk to be fired. According to Italys national bureau of statistics, about 25% of pregnant workersare illegally fired during or right after their pregnancies.Italys not the first country to propose thisIf Italys proposal becomes law, then Italy would become the first country in the Western world to offer paid period leave. South Korea, Japan and Taiwanare among the countries that already offer it.In Japan, its part ofseirikyuuka, or physiological leave. Japanese women got paid menstrual leave as more of them joined the workforce after World War II, and as one informant put it at the time in Culture, Society, And Menstruation, the option becamea symbol for womens emancipation. It represented their ability to speak openly about their bodies, and to gain social recognition for their role as workers.But even in countries that have paid period leave, the legal rightbecomes a symbol of shame. Some women feel uncomfortable with telling their employer about an everyday but intimate occurrence, and embarrassment turns into shame when certain countries stigmatize it.In certain Indonesian factories, menstruating workersare routinely asked by employers to drop their pants toprove that theyre having their period, so women will forego their legal right to a leave, rather than submit themselves to humiliation.Workersliving incountries with paidmenstrual leave alsoface the shame of being considered weak for taking it. In 2013, Russian lawmaker proposed giving Russian women two days off a month for their periods because the pain for the fair sex is often so intense that it is necessary to call an ambulance and becausemenstruation reduces work-competence. After the bill was condemned by feminists for its condescending language, the proposal died. But the lawmakers thinking is not unique, and itshows the many risks that menstruating workersface with takingpaid periodleave.