How menstruation serves as a lens to interpret social relations and power

These developments underscore how menstruation remains a contested site, where biology, law, and gendered power intersect, and play a key role in the process of socialisation of gendered bodies.

Menstruation and biological determinism

In fact, menstruation as a biological function has often been used to justify women’s social subjugation and segregation. Menstruating bodies are made to feel ashamed and impure. Being able to bleed is seen as a marker of femininity, and those who cannot menstruate, such as trans women and some non-binary or gender-fluid persons, are framed as deviants. 

Crucially, discussions on menstruation remain connected to biological determinism. The American evolutionary biologist Richard Lewontin argued that biological determinism emerged over 200 years ago in the invocation of anatomical differences as explanations for social phenomena, such as gender- and race-based hierarchies.

The relationship between menstruation and biological determinism is crucial to how the division between the sexes is understood. 

Socialisation of gendered bodies

In many cultures, menstruation is seen as the onset of puberty for a girl, which marks her transition from girlhood to womanhood. Different kinds of celebratory rituals are associated with the beginning of menstruation in various regions in India, including Assam, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka. 

But there are several restrictions on menstruating people, often marked by an understanding of the menstruating body as “impure” and “tabooed”. These include the prohibition of entry into religious places, restriction on entering the kitchen, cooking, and touching common objects, etc. Many cultures regard the food cooked by menstruating people as “poisonous”. They are often isolated till they stop bleeding. 

Thus, menstruation and its social implications play a key role in the process of socialisation of gendered bodies, as has been argued by Leela Dube (On the Construction of Gender: Hindu Girls in Patrilineal India, 1988) and Rituparna Patgiri (The Role of Food in Constructing Womanhood: A Study of Menstruation in Guwahati, 2022).

Nature/culture dualism

Menstruation is often seen as a constraint that reduces women’s bodily autonomy and choices. In fact, because of biological functions like menstruation, women’s bodies get associated with nature as opposed to men’s bodies linked to culture. This dualism has been analysed by scholars like Sherry B Ortner in Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture (1972). 

Menstruation is historically seen as proof of the natural differences between men and women. It is used as a tool to justify gendered social roles, such as childcare-related roles for women.

But this biological-based gender dualism is challenged by feminist scholarship. It highlights that not all women menstruate, and not all who menstruate identify themselves as women (recall Simone de Beauvoir’s argument that “one is not born, but rather becomes, woman”).

The biologically deterministic view is also challenged by women performing what is traditionally considered hard labour, even during menstruation, in farms, factories, and sports competitions. 

In The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies (2020), Chris Bobel argues that while bleeding is a fact of life, its interpretation is culturally determined. Menstruation becomes a lens for identifying and interpreting social relations and power. 

Intersectionality and disability

Experiences of menstruation are also shaped by culture, class, caste, religion, region, and ethnicity, indicating how intersectionality is crucial to understanding menstruation as a social process. Notably, disability is also seen as an identity that intersects with other identities and shapes the experience of menstruation differently. 

A 2022 report, Menstrual Health and Hygiene Management for Persons with Disability: Insights and Good Practices from India, by Anjali Singhania and Arundati Muralidharan (United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and WaterAid India) states that there should be specific attention to PwDs to ensure safe menstrual hygiene practices, such as 

• There should be specific attention to persons with disabilities. 
• Both PwDs and their caregivers should be presented with detailed information on the products. 
• These products must be able to last for a longer duration, and visits by ASHA workers should include a demonstration of how to wear menstrual hygiene materials. 
• Visually impaired people need additional support and handholding for the use of menstrual hygiene products. 

In addition to disability, other identities like gender and class also make menstruation a differently experienced phenomenon. Thus, policies need to reflect the multiple realities of menstruation.

Constitutional and legal dimensions 

The Sabarimala temple case illustrates the interplay between socio-cultural and legal factors in the context of menstruation. In its landmark verdict of 2018, the Supreme Court allowed the entry of women between the 10-50 age group into the Sabarimala temple. The verdict sparked nationwide debates on the court’s interference in religious matters. 

The court is now hearing the pleas concerning discrimination against women at religious places, including the Sabarimala temple, and the scope of religious freedom under the Constitution.

A similar legal battle was fought against the Haji Ali Dargah Trust, which had banned women from entering the inner sanctum of the Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai. However, in August 2016, the Bombay High Court ruled that the ban was unconstitutional, violating Articles 14, 15, and 25 of the Indian Constitution. 

Thus, menstruation as a bodily function has been used to control women’s bodies, with legal institutions historically playing a crucial role in giving women justice.

In the given socio-cultural context, menstrual leave is conceived as a policy that allows individuals to take time off work because of their bodily needs. It is seen as part of providing just healthcare services to menstruating individuals. 

Menstrual leave: From Japan to India

Globally speaking, Japan, Spain, Indonesia, South Korea, Zambia, Mexico, Vietnam and Taiwan are a few countries that have menstrual leave policies. The erstwhile Soviet Union had introduced a menstrual leave regulation in 1922, followed by Japan in 1947. The legal regulation no longer exist in Russia. 

However, the existing policies have loopholes. They do not specify how many leaves can be taken, pay is not guaranteed, and the women who avail these leaves often face discrimination. Employers have the discretion whether or not to allow leave and other terms like payment, etc. 

In India, Bihar is the first state to provide two days of paid menstrual leave to government employees per month since 1992. Kerala has allowed menstrual leave for all universities and educational institutions. Karnataka offers 12 days of paid menstrual leave annually (one per month) to all women aged 18 to 52 working in formal jobs (government and private companies). In Odisha, female government employees up to the age of 55 can take 12 days of menstrual leave annually. 

Need to make menstrual leave part of labour laws?

While these are progressive developments, women in informal, private, and contractual work continue to remain outside the menstrual leave policy. Therefore, menstrual leave needs to be recognised as part of the broader labour laws.

Providing menstrual leave as part of the larger social, labour, and health care-related justice could enable more women to enter and continue in the workforce. For instance, studies suggest that the prevalence of menstrual disorders ranges from 3 to 87% (Prevalence, Risk Factors and Health-seeking Behaviour of Menstrual Disorders Among Women in India: A Review of Two-decade Evidence by Puja Das and Suresh Jangari, 2024). 

In addition, providing better working conditions and improving access to better toilets and sanitation facilities in workplaces would complement measures for menstrual health and hygiene. More research on the different types and effectiveness of interventions to support women’s menstrual health in the workplace would further help. 

Post read questions

Menstruation is not merely a biological process but a social institution shaping gendered identities. Discuss with reference to processes of socialisation and cultural practices.

Discuss how menstruation has been used historically to justify gendered social roles and hierarchies.

Discuss the role of the judiciary in addressing gender-based discrimination with reference to menstruation.

Examine the constitutional dimensions of restricting women’s entry into religious spaces on the basis of menstruation.

Providing menstrual leave as part of the larger social, labour, and health care-related justice could enable more women to enter and continue in the workforce. Comment.

(Rituparna Patgiri is an Assistant Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati.)

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