The affirmative from highly industrialized countries that female workers have a greater absentism due to illness than male workers was investigated in a textile mill of the city of S. Paulo, Brazil, employing 43.8% male and 56.2% female workers; the time of observation was three years. During the period of observation the frequency rate, the duration rate and the average duration of spells of absence were obtained for the male and female workers; in the case of the latter, absences from work caused by diseases of the reproductive system were separated from those caused by other illnesses. The average frequency rate was 2.67 for male workers and 0.072 and 2.88 for female workers; the duration rate was, respectively, 9.35 and 0.456 and 8.56. The average duration of each spell was 3.49 for male workers and 2.49 for female workers when diseases alone, however, ascribed for an average value of 6.32. In the studied group absentism due to illness was practically alike in both sexes; however, absentism due to diseases of the reproductive system, despite its minimal importance as cause of absentism in general, has a much longer duration than that of other diseases of female workers, thus stressing the importance of proper medical care of these workers.
Absentism; Work; Women
