Would it be fair if women were given 32 paid days a year for having periods?

PastDifficulty7 · 2026-04-13T17:34:03+00:00

We should all be getting a lot more paid time off. I am happy when anyone gets more PTO, but I also believe that giving special privileges to certain workers just turns us against each other.

rdeincognito · 2026-04-13T18:59:33+00:00

First of all, it is not fair. Yes, there are some women whose periods are severe enough to justify a paid day off, but that is not the case for all periods or all women. Giving this to women is simply granting a privilege under an excuse.

Second, if you have workers who receive 23 paid days off during a work year and others who receive 55 (23 + 32), you are going to hire the former, not the latter.

Third and finally, when a worker is absent, the workload does not disappear; it is redistributed among those who are still working.

There is likely no medical test to determine how painful or incapacitating a period is. If there were, a fair approach would be to visit a doctor and, after proper evaluation, receive certified paid time off. That way, only those who truly need it would take it, rather than both those who need it and those who do not but would take advantage of the policy. However, since there is no reliable way to assess this, it may be better to continue as we have until now.

ConsiderationSea1347 · 2026-04-13T18:21:23+00:00

The other side of sex based PTO is men have weaker immune systems. We get sick more often and it takes us longer to recover. Should we build extra sick days off for men then too?

There just needs to be enough PTO that people feel comfortable using it for health conditions. It is really tricky to start splitting health benefits based on biological traits beyond things like pregnancy and disability.

Xixii · 2026-04-13T17:00:17+00:00

What about post-menopausal women and women that don’t have a regular period? Do they all just get the same to keep it fair?

BR_9828 · 2026-04-13T19:42:49+00:00

Nope…they get voting rights without having to be drafted. We don’t. It’s illegal to circumcise an infant female, but regularly practiced on us. Breast cancer gets significantly more funding than testicular cancer and prostate cancer even though prostate cancer now has a higher fatality rate.

They can deal with the period or have a non paid call off or burn their regular pto. They don’t need another special privilege over us

RyuujinPl · 2026-04-13T17:07:25+00:00

More reasons of employers to prefer to employ men and fuel feminist narrative. Win on all fronts for femists i guess

Useful-Visual-8070 · 2026-04-13T18:57:10+00:00

I would never hire a woman under these circumstances.

colmwhelan · 2026-04-13T18:57:19+00:00

Just one more reason to silently not hire women

Sininenn · 2026-04-13T18:20:11+00:00

No. Women are already getting the bulk of the societal resources. Redistribution from men to women. This would make it even more. No thanks.

HullGuy · 2026-04-13T20:01:57+00:00

Absolutely not. Most women never need time off for them. My wife has never had to have a day off for her periods, so why should they be given this time off every month regardless?

Unless, in return, given that the life expectancy in the UK is 83 for women and 79.1 for men, they can have it in exchange for men being able to retire 3.9 years earlier on the same full pension. I’d love to hear the feminists response to this.

No_Industry_4948 · 2026-04-13T19:46:26+00:00

"I Identify".

WeEatBabies · 2026-04-13T17:50:10+00:00

Yes, just give men the same 32 days, equality, it's not hard!

IceCorrect · 2026-04-13T19:37:43+00:00

Why women earn less?

Why people dont want to hire women?

Why there is more sexism in UK? (this I would answer Tate, ofc)

mathwin · 2026-04-13T19:49:30+00:00

I am completely, 100% in favor of this idea.

Please enact a law which makes it more expensive to hire a woman than a man. At just $8 per hour, this means that a woman costs around $5000 more per annum (after all taxes and other costs) than a man in the same position. Use the force of government to bring us back to single-income households.

A_Vinegar_Taster · 2026-04-13T18:23:11+00:00

No. It would not be fair.

It would also incentivize employers to not hire women. That is a month of PTO.

63daddy · 2026-04-13T19:35:50+00:00

I don’t think health leave should be specific to any issue. Employees should be free to use health leave / paid leave as they being depending on their own specific needs.

Having to provide women with 32 more days of paid leave than men would be a great way to discourage employers from hiring women.

Itsdickyv · 2026-04-13T19:55:06+00:00

If they do this in the UK, the consequences would immediately be catastrophic - 76% of the NHS workforce are women.

There are approximately 1.5m employees, so that’s the public pocket paying a huge amount of wage bill for time off… It’s also a solid argument against equal pay, given the ‘requirement’ of “for equal work”.

There is potentially something to address here, but it needs to be better than a blanket “have uterus, get time off” policy (for example, is there a blanket age cut-off where menopause is presumed?)

Wylanderuk · 2026-04-13T19:41:23+00:00

Across the board? Fuck that...

Comprehensive_Baby53 · 2026-04-13T23:54:12+00:00

lol I don't doubt it. Women want to be boss girl when its convenient then ask for paid time off for getting pregnant and having a period and wonder why they don't get paid as much.

Aware_Ask_1679 · 2026-04-14T00:28:35+00:00

Why should anyone get paid for NOT WORKING? I mean, yeah it would be nice, but being entitled to it makes no sense to me. Maybe because I'm self employed I guess.

SgtSplacker · 2026-04-14T00:43:22+00:00

I think everyone deserves 32 paid days a year.

road_laya · 2026-04-14T05:07:03+00:00

Under these new rules - would anyone want to hire women?

Billmacia · 2026-04-14T14:37:45+00:00

Only if men are given 32 paid days a year, for having to deal with women.

ThePiachu · 2026-04-13T19:12:40+00:00

In a socialist world, sure, support people when they need it. Same as you'd support people with chronic pain conditions, or people that need some mental days off. But alas we don't live in such a kind world where everyone is supported according to their needs...

CloudFF7- · 2026-04-13T21:57:02+00:00

I don’t even have PTO

Jeepwave13 · 2026-04-13T22:34:13+00:00

That is fucking asinine.

Safe_Theory_358 · 2026-04-14T01:10:47+00:00

by who?

mandark1171 · 2026-04-14T02:31:32+00:00

Give both men and women the paid days also and its fine... men also have mental health, physical health and appointments, etc... so instead of period days just make them additional YOU days

Ippomasters · 2026-04-14T06:30:07+00:00

So what are men gonna get?

TrainingGap2103 · 2026-04-13T19:42:10+00:00

I'm not opposed to this but I find it interesting that this exists in the same country that has openly misandrist prison reforms. Obviously one gender matters and the other one doesn't.

Bennifred · 2026-04-13T18:27:37+00:00

Is it fair to give a woman up to 32days/yr PTO for debilitating periods? Yes, disability should be accommodated by work. Chronic conditions shouldn't be a discriminatory factor against workers.

Is it fair to give all women 32days/yr PTO for debilitating periods absent of debilitating periods? No, workers who aren't affected by disabilities shouldn't receive accommodations for them.

Companies give new mothers maternity leave. It is fair for these women to receive PTO because they are recovering for a major medical event. It is not fair to give all women 6 weeks off each year for postpartum recovery if they are not recovering from birth.

ManKisserer · 2026-04-13T18:29:24+00:00

Periods can be totally debilitating and incredibly painful, why shouldn't they be covered by something akin to sick pay?

edit,: Op, you should've included the petition given ppl clearly aren't aware of the context of this being exclusive to women with endometriosis and adenomyosis.

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cdp-2026-0050/

Current_Finding_4066 · 2026-04-14T05:36:04+00:00

If they get paid less, sure. Otherwise, hell no.

Impossible-Age-3302 · 2026-04-14T06:02:15+00:00

DizzyAstronaut9410 · 2026-04-14T13:16:37+00:00

Sure, if men get a proportionate amount off for living 5 years less on average.

BottomContributor · 2026-04-14T17:09:36+00:00

Women have been going to work on their periods for decades. No reason to make new privileges to the most privileged class of people

bromagical · 2026-04-13T17:19:21+00:00

Sure, fuck it why not. In the US if I smoke I get more breaks. I’m going to start advocating for days off on my deriod then.

Pretend-Storm4566 · 2026-04-14T02:24:11+00:00

God is England is f&$ked in the head.

Da_Famous_Anus · 2026-04-13T18:37:13+00:00

Well then I should get paid for deez nutz

Alert_Term_8144 · 2026-04-13T19:48:24+00:00

No it wouldn't be - unfairness makes people disgruntled. I am upset about Parental perks - just because I'm not a parent I didn't get 3-6 months leave per child of paid leave and during the "pandemic" for a full year people were I work had 30% less targets. I have furbabies and rose babies - they don't count? Parents' dream is their kids, my dream is to rock climb- I dont get that time off for that? Oh notice it's "parental leave." It's not fair that mothers get it, so now fathers get it which is fair (due to not the one to give birth, perhaps it should be like 75% of maternity leave)... soon no one will be working.
First, women just wanted the right to work. It was opposed because of things like menopause. So the men agreed... then having got that, they women want special privileges - the right to be paid without working. If they want to take unpaid leave, sure.

bralama · 2026-04-13T20:21:12+00:00

The system in the UK must either be totally different than where I’m from, because here “paid days” (the ones who are limited) refer to a vacation, which is totally different from sick days. Sick days are not limited, because how are you going to tell a person he or she has a “limit” on how much health problems they are allowed to have?

Giving every woman 32 extra days of vacation a year is incredibly sexist and stupid. But a woman (or a man) in debilitating pain should be allowed to take a sick day off. Hell, I’m pretty sure it’s even illegal for employers to ask what you’re sick with, unless you’re sick for over a week(?), then some communication is mandatory.

As a woman, I only know one woman with such a condition. For the vast vast majority, an ibuprofen easily takes care of the problem. And however annoying the job may be, I see being able to go to work over suffering in bed all day a privilege😅

69523572 · 2026-04-13T17:33:01+00:00

I think that women should be allowed days off for their period as a mercy to others, but they should not be paid days.

Emergency-Trainer447 · 2026-04-14T04:45:33+00:00

This would screw over women as their would be a massive backlash from employers

BomBaYe2 · 2026-04-14T13:01:55+00:00

Women will do anything but eat a fish apparently

hunterd412 · 2026-04-14T13:57:19+00:00

Sterling_____Archer · 2026-04-14T19:49:29+00:00

That is completely acceptable, and should be written into employment law.

Yitastics · 2026-04-14T23:53:29+00:00

If men get the same then sure.

doyouevennoscope · 2026-04-16T11:35:00+00:00

Would it be fair? No.

Do I support such a thing? Probably. If a woman's periods can be that bad.

There isn't any equivalent for men in this scenario. I guess you could just everyone more time off? That'd be nice.

I'm sure some would take the opportunity to scream gender pay gap if they were paid 1P less than the men not on leave though lmao

Rare-Discipline3774 · 2026-04-18T05:45:46+00:00

Only if they stop using it against men.

DistrictDivorceCoach · 2026-04-13T16:55:58+00:00

If you need something, ask for it. Be mad if you don’t get what you wanted. Don’t get upset when somebody else asks for what they want and get it. The object is to build your life, not tear down anyone else’s. I would much rather that I also get 32 paid days off instead of fighting against them getting paid. If they can get paid, more power to them.

Axiomancer · 2026-04-13T17:23:20+00:00

Yes of course. My best friend and ex had (and still do) periods painful enough she was almost fainting from the pain. It's not their fault their body is constructed the way it is (it's not normal to have it so painful, it's most likely a sickness, but it doesn't change the fact that they've been struggling).

New-Distribution6033 · 2026-04-13T16:56:03+00:00

You work a job to make mone, not just for you, bilut your employer. How are your personal needs the responsibility of the employer?

LickidlySplit · 2026-04-13T20:01:11+00:00

that number needs to be 82. One week per month for them to not be in the office.

Accomplished_List843 · 2026-04-13T19:23:08+00:00

I believe it's fair, they live a lot of pain every month. But I'll be happier if men get at least half of that just for mental health.

Capital-Box164 · 2026-04-13T21:56:11+00:00

as a 67 foot male feminist, I think they should. Btw guys I love labubus and dubai chocolate. Not performative btw,

Title	Would it be fair if women were given 32 paid days a year for having periods?
Author	The_Dean_France
Upvotes	43
Comments	109
Date	April 13, 2026 4:45 PM UTC (3 months ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/1skggsf/would_it_be_fair_if_women_were_given_32_paid_days/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/would-it-be-fair-if-women-were-given-32-paid-days.1577844 https://theredarchive.com/post/1577844

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