KUALA LUMPUR: Eighty percent of Malaysian women who have suffered from period pain say it has affected their ability to work, and support measures to have time off work during their periods, YouGov research reveals.
However, the data showed that only 46 per cent of those whose work had been affected have told their employer about it.
This survey came into light after a Mumbai-based media company Culture Machine hit the headlines for offering its female employees the opportunity to take the first day of their periods off.
The new policy, the company said, was a bid to be more female friendly.
The research also revealed that as many as 86 per cent of women in the country said they have worked whilst suffering from period pains , while 81 per cent said the pain had affected their ability to work.
However, data showed less than half – only 46 per cent – of Malaysian women admitted to their employers that their performance were affected by it.
A total of 23 percent told their employers that their poor productivity was due to some other reasons despite it being due to period pains, while 32 percent said they neither admitted or gave other reasons.
YouGov said a large portion of the 32 percent “neither” group may have not indicated that they were feeling unwell to their employer in the first place.
One of the questions asked was “In what ways do women find it harder to work because of period pain?”.
Results showed over half (54 percent) of the women said their period pain affected their ability to concentrate, 32 percent said they had to take short breaks due to the pains and four in ten (42 per cent) have either had to go home early (18 per cent) or take a day off (22 per cent) because of the pain.
“Society has been slow to recognise that period pain can be a significant issue for working women, although attitudes do seem to be changing.
“Aside from the actions of Culture Machine, countries including South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia and Japan have laws in place allowing women time off work when they are menstruating (although Taiwan’s three days off a year for menstrual cramps are the most generous).
“Eighty-one per cent of Malaysian women support similar measures being introduced,” the report said.
YouGov, an online research based company, said the data was collected online between Aug 25 and Sept 7 this year using its panel of over 5 million people worldwide.
It was weighted to be representative of the online population, adding that the sample size was Malaysia n=1,303.