Human Rights in the Menstrual Movement: Reductionism and Renewed Potential from Below
Menstrual Health and Gender Justice working group co-director Lauren Houghton delivered her presentation, “Working with your Period: Individual and Structural ways for menstruators to be more productive” at the PSI and Days for Girls Webinar, Investing in Menstrual Health Makes Good Business Sense. Period. There were 92 attendees from Europe, Asia and Africa.
Click here to watch the recording.
This webinar focuses on why it is beneficial to prioritize menstrual health at work. Learn how promoting menstrual health and hygiene (MHH) in the workplace can positively impact productivity, self-care, and overall well-being. Menstrual health experts will provide insights from the latest research and data, sharing best practices that can promote supportive menstrual health environments in the workplace. Don't miss this opportunity to learn why investing in menstrual health at the workplace can advance gender equity, boost employee satisfaction and retention, and improve business performance.
Speakers:
Dr. Ekua Yankah, Brands on a Mission
Dr. Lauren Houghton, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
Neville Okwaro, Ministry of Health WASH Hub-Kenya
Pooja Singh, General Manager – HR (Lead HR), PSI India Private Limited
Dr. Deborah Maufi, PSI Europe (Facilitator)
As part of its Period of Life: Improving Menstrual Health and Knowledge in India project, Columbia Global Centers | Mumbai is organizing a virtual workshop
Menstrual Health and Gender Justice working group co-director Lauren Houghton presented her talk, “Protest with your Period: Using Menstrual Tracking Apps in Research for Gender Justice” at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health’s Period Apps, Privacy & Politics: Emerging Issues event.
Speakers: Margaret Johnson, University of Baltimore, School of Law Amanda Shea, Clue Lauren Houghton, Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health
CSSD working group members to will participate in LSA in Lisbon in July 2022 in a panel on Menstruation, Health, and the Law
CGC | Mumbai organized a workshop on “Critical Menstruation Studies: Strengthening Interdisciplinary Research” in Mumbai, India
Periods are having their moment – in this Society for Menstrual Cycle Research (SMCR) webinar we hear from people who are turning it into a movement.
Join the Menstrual Health and Gender Justice working group in celebrating the launch of The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies!
The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies invites the reader to explore menstruation from nearly every possible angle, including dimensions that you might not yet have considered: the historical, political, embodied, cultural, religious, social, health, economic, artistic, literary and many more. With 72 chapters on more than 1000 pages, the Handbook–the first of its kind–establishes Critical Menstruation Studies as a rich field of research.
The editors, Chris Bobel, Inga Winkler, Breanne Fahs, Katie Ann Hasson, Elizabeth Arveda Kissling, and Tomi-Ann Roberts together bring almost a century of expertise in studying menstruation. Over the last three years, they have sought out 134 contributors in more than 30 countries to address a wide range of menstrual matters in the Handbook.
During the launch, the editors will provide a brief introduction and a few contributors will share key messages from their respective chapters. The event will end with a Q&A at which point audience members will be invited to submit questions for specific contributors and editors.
Visit our blog to learn more about the handbook and click here to download the complete handbook for free.
Please join the Menstrual Health and Gender Justice Working Group, the Center for the Study of Social Difference, and the Institute for the Study of Human Rights for an interdisciplinary workshop on November 22, 2019 entitled "Multifaceted Menstruation".
Please join the Menstrual Health and Gender Justice Working Group for a screening of 'PERIOD. End of Sentence,' the Oscar-winning documentary about menstruation. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion.
Panelists include:
Lauren Houghton, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health
Shobita Parthasarathy, Professor of Public Policy at University of Michigan's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
Emily Hoppes, Program and Partnerships Coordinator at Huru International
While the film focuses on the production of pads, ensuring menstrual health requires reaching far beyond that. Our panel will address critical questions related to menstrual stigma, agency, and power relations. How can we use the current attention to menstruation to bring about transformative change that advances gender justice?
Co-sponsored by the Institute for the Study of Human Rights and the Institute for Research on Women, Gender and Sexuality
Event Contact Information:
Michelle Chouinard
mc4225@columbia.edu
Please join CSSD working group Menstrual Health and Gender Justice in welcoming Chris Bobel to speak about her new book "The Managed Body: Developing Girls & Menstrual Health in the Global South.”
”The Managed Body" productively complicates ‘menstrual hygiene management’ (MHM)—a growing social movement to support menstruating girls in the Global South. Bobel offers an invested critique of the complicated discourses of MHM including its conceptual and practical links with the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) development sector, human rights and ‘the girling of development.’ Drawing on analysis of in-depth interviews, participant observations and the digital materials of NGOs and social businesses, Bobel shows how MHM frames problems and solutions to capture attention and direct resources to this highly-tabooed topic. She asserts that MHM organizations often inadvertently rely upon weak evidence and spectacularized representations to make the claim of a ‘hygienic crisis’ that authorizes rescue. And, she argues, the largely product-based solutions that follow fail to challenge the social construction of the menstrual body as dirty and in need of concealment. While cast as fundamental to preserving girls’ dignity, MHM prioritizes ‘technological fixes’ that teach girls to discipline their developing bodies vis a vis consumer culture, a move that actually accommodates more than it resists the core problem of menstrual stigma.
Bobel is an associate professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and is a faculty fellow in the MHGJ working group. You can read more about Bobel and view selected publications here.
Books will be available for purchase.
Food will be provided.
Event Contact Information:
Michelle Chouinard
mc4225@columbia.edu
Please note, the location of this event has changed. It will now be held at:
Hammer Science Building, Room 401
701 W 168th St, NYC 10032
A series to explore public health topics through the lens of different religious faiths. This event is co-sponsored by the Mailman School of Public Health, the Office of Diversity, Culture and Inclusion, and the Center for the Study of Social Difference working group Menstrual Health & Gender Justice.
Register here.
This panel will bring together experts on menstrual health – established and emerging
scholars as well as practitioners. While research on menstruation is not new, the current
momentum creates new opportunities.
