The Parisian suburb of Saint Ouen is the first French city to give women paid sick leave for period pain. But while several lawmakers want France to follow Spain in voting a national law on menstrual leave, there are concerns such a measure could backfire and increase gender discrimination.
In February, Spain became the first European country to give women paid time off work if they suffer from chronic period pain, approving a law on menstrual leave as part of a wider reproductive health reform.
The law provides employees with the right to a three-day menstrual leave of absence if they experience debilitating periods, providing a doctor deems it necessary.
There are now calls for France to follow suit.
According to an IFOP poll around half of French women of menstrual age experience painful periods, and two thirds said they supported the right to menstrual leave.
Around a dozen French companies have already introduced some form of period leave, the first – La Collective – in 2021.
In late March the town of Saint Ouen, just north of Paris, became the first town council in France to offer a special leave of absence.
Under the experimental scheme, female municipal workers will be allowed to take up to two days of paid sick leave per month, providing they can show a medical certificate confirming their condition.
Crucially, the two days leave would be paid by the state, whereas sick leave in France is only paid from the fourth day.
Suffering in silence
Town hall employee Véronqiue Kojbati, who suffers from a painful gynaecological condition known as adenomyosis, welcomed the measure.
“Even taking painkillers all the time didn’t relieve the pain, but I came to work anyway,” she told RFI.
“Two days’ sick leave means losing 70 euros, so doing that every month is a lot of money. From now on, I could use the new protocol of two days' leave.”
Listen to a conversation about menstrual leave in the Spotlight on France podcast:
The scheme was spearheaded by Socialist party mayor Karim Bouamrane after he realised how many of the town’s 1,200 female employees were suffering in silence.
“We had to do something,” he told RFI. “With this special leave of absence – up to two days per month – women will feel less guilty. But above all, it will make the issue of painful periods less of a taboo subject.”
It could also help raise awareness of women's health at work, including debilitating diseases like endometriosis which affects one out of ten women in France.
“We didn’t talk about painful periods in our family, it was a taboo subject,” said town hall employee Jerome Pankoni. “I’ve since asked my sister about it and it turns out she’s been suffering for years. I had no idea.”
Draft bills
Bouamrane wants to go further, and has written to President Emmanuel Macron calling for the right to period leave to be enshrined in French law.
“Just like you get time off for training or recuperation days, menstrual leave will also become standard practice,” he said. “That’s why it has to feature in our labour code, and become law.”
A number of Socialist and Green MPs are drafting bills to that effect.
“It’s the right moment to make this bill in France, there’s a lot of interest and the population is ready,” said Socialist MP Fatiha Keloua Hachi.
Green MPs are also consulting feminist associations, medics and companies with a view to drafting their own bill.
Additional discrimination
But there are concerns over the efficiency of a menstrual leave law and whether women would dare to call on it.
In 2017, Italy toyed with the idea but dropped it because lawmakers believed it could reinforce harmful stereotypes about women in the workplace.
The business world is sceptical, with the Confederation of SMEs saying it could result in “disorganisation” within small companies.
The boss' union, Medef, is opposed, saying it would “send out the image that women cannot hold the same posts as men”.
Women themselves are nervous over the possible consequences.
In the IFOP survey, 82 percent of those questioned said they feared a law on menstrual leave could make it harder for them to get hired – an opinion shared by feminist group Osez le féminisme.
What seems like a good idea in principle could have a detrimental effect on gender equality in the workplace said spokesperson Violaine de Filipiss.
“You have to think about the problem of discrimination during recruitment and the impact on career development,” she told RFI.
“We know the questions employers ask themselves nowadays in France: ‘If a man and woman have the same skills shouldn’t I prefer the 30-year-old man to the 30-year-old woman because he’s less likely to go on maternity leave?’ We’ll have the same problem with menstrual leave.”
Sociologist Aline Boeuf has also expressed fears that “people in precarious work situations might hesitate to ask for menstrual leave if they have no guarantee of being hired again".
A cultural change
Whether or not a law on menstrual leave is desirable, many groups agree that it would not be enough.
Employers have "not yet taken into account women’s experiences, such as menstruation, pregnancy and menopause”, Boeuf told RFI, pointing to measures that could help to improve the daily life of employees, like equipping toilets with washbasins or installing rest rooms with hot water bottles.
Yasmine Candau of EndoFrance, a group that campaigns for better recognition of endometriosis, agrees that dedicated spaces in the workplace would be a sign of progress.
“Pain can come at any moment, you can’t always know in advance, in the morning,” she said.
Socialist Senator Hélène Conway-Mouret, a key player in drafting a bill, recognises that menstrual leave will not resolve all the problems long term, but says a cultural change is necessary and the bill can kickstart that.
“Women must not be ashamed of suffering," she told RFI. "This measure is a small step in favour of their wellbeing at work, but a big step in the more global debate that we need around the change in mores,” she said.
In addition to Spain, only Zambia, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and Taiwan have introduced some form of menstrual leave.
Listen to a version of this story in the Spotlight on France podcast. Listen here.
