Menstruation is a fact of life for nearly every woman. Many women in the global north enjoy at least some level of education regarding menstruation and have access to clean, ready-made sanitary products. At least in America, it is uncommon to hear of a woman denied the right to participate in schooling or other activities while menstruating due to cultural or religious norms. However, it is strikingly clear that many women in the global south experience menstruation as yet another avenue through which to be marginalized. The aim of this paper will be to highlight the ways in which poverty, ignorance, and disdain for menstruation is, for a large percentage of the female population, an oppressive force which threatens their rights to education,
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Many young girls are forced to marry before they are able to complete school. The relationship between menstruation and child marriage is clear: menstruation indicates the ability to reproduce and passage into womanhood, which is in turn taken as a signal that a marriage should take place. This means that girls who have not yet reached high school are made to set aside their education in exchange for starting a family. In Gender and Development, the authors highlight one study that found that in South India half of girls are withdrawn from school when they attain menarche. The assumed reasons for this are that menstruation means preparedness for marriage, and also that there is danger in being an unmarried pubescent girl (Mahon and Fernandes, 104). One study in Delhi, India, found that on average, girls were married around age 15. The same study noted that if a girl was married before beginning menstruation and the marriage was consummated immediately afterward, she believed that the onset of her menses was triggered by the sex she had engaged in (Garg, et al, 19). If we want to reduce the amount of child marriages occurring in low-income countries, it is important to change attitudes about menstruation and stress that menstruating should not be the end of a young girl’s education or her
Many young girls are forced to marry before they are able to complete school. The relationship between menstruation and child marriage is clear: menstruation indicates the ability to reproduce and passage into womanhood, which is in turn taken as a signal that a marriage should take place. This means that girls who have not yet reached high school are made to set aside their education in exchange for starting a family. In Gender and Development, the authors highlight one study that found that in South India half of girls are withdrawn from school when they attain menarche. The assumed reasons for this are that menstruation means preparedness for marriage, and also that there is danger in being an unmarried pubescent girl (Mahon and Fernandes, 104). One study in Delhi, India, found that on average, girls were married around age 15. The same study noted that if a girl was married before beginning menstruation and the marriage was consummated immediately afterward, she believed that the onset of her menses was triggered by the sex she had engaged in (Garg, et al, 19). If we want to reduce the amount of child marriages occurring in low-income countries, it is important to change attitudes about menstruation and stress that menstruating should not be the end of a young girl’s education or her