Study Shows Women Expected to Miss More Work Than Men

[jrstephens]

It's considered more socially acceptable for Mom, rather than Dad, to be absent from work.


And past research has established that women, on average, do in fact miss more work days than men. Why this is the case and its consequences, however, have remained subjects in the realm of hearsay rather than definitive research. Hello people, we miss more b/c we stay home with sick kids!!!!!

A new study formally links the data and the norm, indicating women miss more work than men because that's what society expects. This seemingly benign "policy" could foster workplace discrimination in wages and advancement for women, the study authors suggest.


"The results suggest that a distinct absence culture exists for women that might legitimize their absenteeism, but it might also perpetuate gender stereotypes and lead to gender discrimination," said researcher Eric Patton of Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia.


Patton and Saint Joseph's colleague Gary Johns examined nearly 3,000 New York Times articles dealing with work absence from 1851 through 2004, focusing on the 167 news items that mentioned women.


Overall, they found absence by women was less likely to be associated with punishment than men, and women's absence was rarely noted as deviant.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20071116/sc_livescience/womenexpectedtomissmoreworkthanmen

 

[chefsteph07]

This is the stupidest "study" to come out yet...I think it's a no brainer!

 

[raebates]

I'm just wondering how much of our tax money went into this study. It reminds me a bit of the study a couple of years ago that was done to find out why hog farms stink. Both have fairly obvious conclusions.

 

[chefann]

What I don't like, as a working person without children, is that working parents (both genders) are forgiven additional days they take to stay home with their children. But non-parents are expected to never miss a day due to personal illness. That's discriminatory, too. Same with arriving late/leaving early.My company doesn't use "Mrs." as a title on women's resumes because people assume that married women have children and will therefore have more restrictive schedules and time off requirements than non-married women, because they assume the marrieds have children.

 

[chefsteph07]

That could also be said as a mother of a young child, I am fairly certain that you would get a job based on the fact that you have no children, versus myself, who has a 3 yr old and would be "expected" to be taking some add'l time off for various illnesses by my child.
My last job that I held, there were a few smokers there, and while they were allowed to go outside 2x per day to have their "smoke break", I, as a nonsmoker was not permitted any kind of add'l break to compensate for the break made up by the smokers..Discimination? I think so.
I am certain this topic could be debated around for quite a while.

 

[chefjeanine]

What I don't like, as a working person without children, is that working parents (both genders) are forgiven additional days they take to stay home with their children. But non-parents are expected to never miss a day due to personal illness. That's discriminatory, too. Same with arriving late/leaving early.
.

Amen sister!

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

Gee, I never heard of the Miss More Work Pagent. At least, Burt Parks could get employment again.

 

[cmdtrgd]

Get this, at my hubby's old work you would get a raise when you had a kid!!!!! The person deserving of the raise and always saving the day (ahem....hubby) got one raise in 6 years. I am soooooooooo glad he is out of there!