Female absenteeism is not just about child care
Why women call in sick more than men is a complex workplace issue
By Eve Tahmincioglu, MSNBC contributor

The bad news: Women are still absent nearly twice as often as their male counterparts in the workplace.

The obvious answer from human resource experts, employers, employees and even us in the media is always that “working moms have most of the responsibilities at home,” and that translates into female employees having to take sick days to tend to sick kids.

Indeed, new Labor Department data shared with msnbc.com seem to support this to a degree.

What’s interesting, McMenamin points out, is that married men with kids actually report a lower rate of absences than men without children. It was so surprising to this labor data expert that he checked back to 2000 and found the trend is consistent for the past six years.

Before you pat yourself on the back, having guessed that child rearing is what has many women calling in sick, McMenamin surmises there must be many other factors contributing to the high rate among women.

“Even among people who have no children at home,” he adds, “the reported absence rate is higher among women than among men.”

That focus on gender, he adds, has created a situation where co-workers and managers expect women to be absent more often, and that, in turn, can creates an air of unreliability around female employees.

The researchers postulated that social expectations have created an "absence culture" for women that may be a factor.

"This absence culture for women may partially legitimize absenteeism for this group and attenuate perceptions of deviance surrounding women’s absence," the researchers said. "At the same time, such an absence culture, regardless of whether it leads to actual higher absenteeism for particular women, may also be harmful to women in other ways.”

Female absenteeism about more than child care - Your Career - MSNBC.com

Nah, it's just because women are always getting "cramps" and shit like that.

Women are, biologically, more complex creatures. There's more that can go wrong with them.

But, there is a flipside.

The best way I've heard it put was something like this: Women tend to have more minor breakdowns, but men are more vulnerable to sudden, catastrophic failure.

So, while Judy in accounting might rack up a bothersome number of sick days for various reasons, at least she's far less likey than Bob in shipping to just fall over dead and leave the company scrambling to find a replacement.


Also, it does not surpirse me that married men with kids take less time off than women in the same boat. I think that has to do with social stigma.

See, I've been married -- to a wife who also worked -- and had small children.

When, as a father, I would ask for time off because one of the kids had to leave daycare with a case of the screaming shits or whatever, I would get all kinds of grief. The unspoken/unwritten message I would get was this:

"You are the MAN, you are supposed to keep working, no matter what. It is your WIFE'S duty to drop everything and run to the children. Now, be a MAN, shut up, and get back to work."\

In other words, if a mother wants to run out and go to a sick child... well, that's what's expected.
If a worried father wants to do the same thing... he's a lazy pussy who's just looking for an excuse to get out of work.

That's true.

Even though women are supposed to be equal they still get preferential treatment over men.

Employers still have to cut more slack for women employees.

wow a chauvinist and a homophobe

Gary, check out this link for accuracy and tell me how "preferential treatment" is responsible for poverty?

LINK

OhDear

Only the hotties get preferential treatment.

Interesting point Bonnie - why do women earn less than men?

Is it DESPITE the fact they get preferential treatment from employers, or BECAUSE they do?