Asian countries have been offering females paid menstrual leave for almost 70 years
But it’s not the vacation you imagine
By Maham Javaid
This week China’s Anhui province announced that female workers will enjoy paid menstrual leave starting next month. Some see it as a sign of progress; one Chinese woman told CNN that the law shows her country is “taking menstruation seriously as a women’s health issue.” A paid day off to Netflix and Midol? It certainly sounds like a gift from the government.
But menstrual leave is guaranteed in a number of countries in Asia, including Taiwan and Indonesia, and it doesn’t look like much of a vacation. In some places, it’s even become an obstacle to equal pay for women workers.
Japan became the first country to introduce the leave in 1947, but it had been debated for 20 years prior. That debate began in 1928 when, according to Barbara Molony, a history professor at Santa Clara University, female conductors for the Tokyo Municipal Bus Company demanded days off so they wouldn’t have to quit their jobs because of monthly period-related absences. (They had no access to bathrooms throughout the day.) Molony writes that World War II postponed their demands, but soon after the war “impoverished women, desperate for jobs, found that the lack of adequate toilets and sanitary napkins made work impossible during menstruation.”
After intense lobbying, representatives of women in labor unions won the right to paid menstrual leave. The Japanese Labor Standards Law stated that women suffering from painful periods or whose job might exacerbate period pain are allowed seirikyuuka (literally “physiological leave”).
But critics of paid menstrual leave say the policy hasn’t served women. Alice J. Dan, a professor University of Illinois professor writes that in Japan, the leaves have been used as an argument against providing equal positions and equal wages for female workers. The paid leave can cause tension between women and men in the workplace. And employers report being less likely to hire women, since offering leave adds to their overhead. Some say it’s difficult to judge whether female employees really need the leave or are just “cashing in” on being a woman.
An investigation last year among women in China’s Guangdong Province, which was considering adopting menstrual leave, revealed that 20% of women wouldn’t feel comfortable exercising their right to the benefit for fear of revealing their personal business — does everyone you work with need to know you have your period? — or pissing off their boss.
“The law does not benefit the societal view of women,” Dan says, “because menstrual leave pathologizes a normal human biological function, which promotes an impression that women are ill-equipped for the working world, at least compared to men.”
In 2013, a Russian politician proposed a menstrual leave law, saying, “During menstruation … strong pain induces heightened fatigue, reduces memory and work competence and leads to colorful expressions of emotional discomfort.” Russian feminists didn’t agree with his sentiments. Neither did parliament: The bill died before anyone could take it too seriously.
Recently period cramps entered the public discourse in the US after Lena Dunham, creator of HBO’s Girls, wrote an essay about living with endometriosis — a disease that affects approximately 5 million American women. Which might make this seem like an opportune moment for American women to start lobbying for paid period leave. Then again, after looking at the Asian example, maybe it’s better for women to just grit their teeth, pop a handful of Advil and keep on working.
