Women don't call in sick because they worry about how it will be perceived by their superiors, according to Eve Tahmincioglu, msnbc. contributor in her article "Female Absenteeism is not Just About Child Care" (5 Nov 2007). Whether they need a plumber or are caring for a sick mother, women are afraid to take time off because there is an expectation on the part of employers that they're unreliable. Even a woman recruiter admits that when interviewing a woman with young children, potential employers will presume she'll need extra days off to care for them. That's not all...

Though absenteeism overall is dropping, even among women, when a woman calls in an absence to a manager, whether she's caring for aging parents, ill children, or taking time off to get well herself, she tends to reveal too much in her excuse.

I don't know about you, but I find this kind of stereotyping outrageous and outmoded. Perhaps with employers implementing flexible paid plans as discussed in today's "Female Fact," women might finally be free of this burden of TMI because flexible paid plans level the playing field without exhibiting overt sexism. Paid time off as an earned benefit in that respect makes sense to me, but maybe you have other suggestions...what creative solutions for alleviating absenteeism in the workplace has your company implemented? Do you find parents with children or specifically, women with children, abuse time-off policies and you have to pick up the slack? Do you judge women of child-bearing age? Share your complaints, your ideas, your concerns.