{"id":435,"date":"2017-01-31T17:16:23","date_gmt":"2017-01-31T17:16:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/?p=435"},"modified":"2017-01-31T17:16:23","modified_gmt":"2017-01-31T17:16:23","slug":"zambia-passes-new-law-allowing-women-one-day-off-a-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/2017\/01\/31\/zambia-passes-new-law-allowing-women-one-day-off-a-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Zambia passes new law allowing women one day off a month"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A ZAMBIAN law that entitles women to take one day off work a month when they have their period is stirring increasingly fierce debate in a country reluctant to discuss sexual health.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Discreetly called Mother\u2019s Day, the law enables women to be absent from work without notice or a doctor\u2019s note to help them cope with menstrual bleeding, pain and cramps.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt helps me to manage my physiological needs (and) I think it\u2019s very important that I always endorse it,\u201d said Shupe Luchembe, 36, a civil servant in the capital Lusaka and mother of three.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a woman, it goes without saying that every month I need a special day away from the office to manage myself properly.\u201d In Zambia, a southern African country of around 16 million people, discussing sex and personal health is largely taboo and often surrounded by secrecy and misunderstanding.<\/p>\n

Many parents prefer not to explain how their children were conceived and born, instead saying they were \u201cbrought from the hospital.\u201d But two years ago, employment law was amended to grant all women \u2014 and not just mothers, despite its title \u2014 one day of menstrual leave each month after lobbying by campaigners.<\/p>\n

\u201cMother\u2019s Day is a very progressive law,\u201d said Madube Siyauya, of the Non-Governmental Organisations\u2019 Coordinating Council (NGOCC), an umbrella body of Zambian action groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome women have heavy flows, some of them have a lot of pain or vomiting. \u201cSo it\u2019s a very important day that allows women to attend to their biological needs and continue their work without being susceptible to discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cZambia is envied because of this law,\u201d added Sara Longwe, also of the NGOCC, one of those that pushed for the law.<\/p>\n

But not everyone is a fan. While some Zambian women say the day off is widely abused, the law is also a popular subject for complaint among Zambian men.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI have never taken Mother\u2019s Day in my life,\u201d said Laura Miti, 46, head of the Alliance for Community Action.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t understand why others need it. It is abused. Whenever they have something they need to do, they would rather take the day off than taking leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy sense is that giving half the workforce 12 days (off) extra per year is unproductive. It can\u2019t be productive, especially if you are working in the corporate world.\u201d Chiselwa Kawanda, 33, a government employee in Lusaka, agrees, saying the law was misguided.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I miss a day at work, it means I have to start all over the next day,\u201d she said, adding that, in any case: \u201cYou don\u2019t have periods for just one day.\u201d Zambia\u2019s approach is rare across the world, though Japan has had similar legislation since 1947 and Indonesia, Taiwan and South Korea have since followed suit.<\/p>\n

In Britain, Coexist, a small Bristol-based non-profit company, is experimenting with flexible hours for menstruating employees.<\/p>\n

Despite the criticisms, the Zambian government says it stands by the legislation, which has no age limits so also applies to women after the menopause.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome women get sick, they are not able to concentrate on their work … so it was agreed that they can stay home without producing any certificate,\u201d Cecilia Mulindeti-Kamanga, of the labour ministry, told AFP.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course there has been some complaints here and there but women go at different times. There is no documentary evidence of low productivity.\u201d Some Zambian women also allege that employers, particularly in the private sector, put pressure on female workers to not take their Mother\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n

Others point out that the vast majority of Zambian women cook, clean, bring up children and care for the elderly at home or toil in the fields with little time off of any description.<\/p>\n

The government has also introduced other programs to support women. This year it started providing free sanitary pads to schoolgirls in rural areas to reduce absenteeism.<\/p>\n

Women in Zambia face widespread discrimination in education, law and employment, and the rates of child marriage and death during childbirth are high, especially in underdeveloped rural areas where most people live.<\/p>\n

News.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A ZAMBIAN law that entitles women to take one day off work a month when they have their period is stirring increasingly fierce debate in a country reluctant to discuss sexual health. Discreetly called Mother\u2019s Day, the law enables women to be absent from work without notice or a doctor\u2019s note to help them cope with menstrual bleeding, pain and… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":436,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435\/revisions\/436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}