On air 1100GMT: Does menstruation affect how women work?
|08:29 UK time, Thursday, 7 July 2011
This topic was discussed on World Have Your Say on 7 July, 2011. Listen to the programme.
The head of a major New Zealand employers' group has been fired after implying that women were paid less than men because they took more sick leave due to menstruation.
In a radio interview, Alasdair Thompson of the Employers and Manufacturers' Association said:
"Who takes the most sick leave? Women do, in general...why? Because once a month they have sick problems. I don't like saying these things because it sounds like I'm sexist, but it's the facts of life."
Should he have lost his job?
In a poll on Television New Zealand, 54 per cent of viewers said it was right he was sacked, while 47 per cent said it was an overreaction.
We posted that question on our Facebook site yesterday and got a mixed bag of responses.
Carlos wrote, "Not at all. Is it politically correct? Of course not. But it is true without a doubt."
Cornel asks why "people can't say jack about women anymore?".
But Samuel from New Zealand says: "It's not true that a woman who die exactly the same job as a man should get paid less because she has 'women's problems' once a month. That's complete rubbish."
The story is mostly being tweeted in New Zealand, but has been picked up the Times of India, The Huffington Post and the Daily Mail.
What do you think? Should he have been sacked or were his comments just plain wrong, period?
