About 10 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions have introduced special leave for female employees if they suffer from menstrual cramps.

The special leave for women suffering dysmenorrhea is meant to give female employees better protection, but the reality is, it is difficult to implement the leave. Some enterprises simply refuse to grant their female employees the leave, while the majority of women are unaware the leave exists.

Besides, it is hard to define dysmenorrhea. Many females feel unwell during their periods, and pain is quite common. What level of pain or discomfort entitles female employees to the leave? How to define that? Moreover, there has been no mention of the penalty employers will receive for not granting the leave to their female employees.

Worse, as the whole nation lacks protection for female employees, if period leave becomes part of the national employment law, employers might choose not to hire women.

A law that only looks good on paper is not a good law. If the leave is effective only on paper, that challenges the authority of the law.