Okay, so for older women in the workplace, say roughly would be 40+ today (I am 57), we had to appear to be as "tough" as the men. They were ready to reduce us to being weak, in need of help, at every opportunity. It was both paternilistic and high misogyny #periodleave

Few women would ever dare to show themselves as weak in case they lost opportunities. The older women I worked with were much tougher, hardened, even unsympathetic. No one really mentioned menstruation publicly anyway. And admitting to hormones would typecast you #periodleave

As unreliable, a typical female.
Women have moved on a long way from that today. And older women might feel they paved the way and they did and we have. But the world has changed. Today's women are less ashamed, more comfortable in their skins than many of us were. #periodleave

Remember there was no question of men getting paternity leave or having "weak" emotions either. They were also victims of patriarchy. And women felt they had to match them.
It's taken a long fight to make menstruation mildly non-taboo. Period pain can be debilitating #periodleave

In conclusion, let's not fight. Menstruation happens to us, it's a part of nature. It is not a weakness. #periodleave does not have to be seen as conceding hard-won space but rather as winning a battle to have all aspects of femalehood accepted.
And we still have work bloody hard