Why current menstrual policies do not work

Abstract

A useful way to evaluate any public policy is to use the ‘what’s the problem represented to be’ approach²: what a policy proposes to do reveals what the creators assume is problematic (needs to change). In the case of most menstrual and menopausal policies to date, this appears to be the menstruating body (and ‘women’ by association), rather than universal menstrual ignorance and taboos, associated discriminatory beliefs and practices, and those who profit from these things.

For instance, when we talk about ‘period poverty’ (in the Global North) and ‘menstrual hygiene management’ (in the Global South), the policy solution is typically ‘access to disposable period products’. Subsequently, the problem of period poverty or poor menstrual hygiene management is represented as ‘(unmanaged) periods make girls or women miss school or work’³. This, unfortunately, frames periods and female bodies as the problem rather than the government policies and societal gender inequalities that directly contribute to increasing poverty especially among women and girls⁴; or the fact that most schools (and workplaces) are not fit for people who menstruate⁵; or the huge profit margins involved in the sale of expensive disposable period products (and other products subject to ‘pink tax’)³.