Addressing Menstruation in the Workplace: Truthbombs & Behind-the-Scenes from a Women-centric Grassroots Organization

Over my years at the One Billion Literates Foundation, I have often found myself having conversations about menstruation with my colleagues. Sometimes it was about the deafening silence and the incongruity of the silence as a women-centric organization; at other times it was a debate with a fellow woman exhibiting disdain for their bodily cycle; and, yet at other times it was just wondering at the depth of misconception, taboo, and myth that continues to envelop this topic.

Through all of this, the concept of a Period Leave was only peripherally discussed, almost as an academic construct; and even in those peripheral discussions, it was apparent that this was not a topic that could be reduced to just an organizational policy; rather it would be something that required deep deliberation and thought.

So it came to pass that about 12 months ago, a larger discussion ensued in our leadership team around the possibility and indeed the need for Menstrual Leave, as a formal guideline within the Foundation. The rationale was clear – ‘As a grassroots organization that works with rural women and posits feminist notions of equality and equity, it is our moral imperative to put systems in place that reflect and substantiate this philosophy.’

The discussions were eye-opening. There was a clear acknowledgement that we needed to be realistic about the context we operate in. ?The considerations that were tabled included the fact that most women in the organization might be unable or unwilling to utilize this policy; some because of their internalized notions of the ‘biological burden’ and suffering through periods in silence; or others experiencing shame, guilt and other discomfort when it came to their menstruation. This worry was further compounded by the fact that most of our field staff are women who report to mostly male supervisors – and thus the fear of discriminatory or otherwise sexist remarks and undertones when implementing a period policy was an undeniable barrier.

The path forward was clear. Even clearer was what we shouldn’t do.

It was starkly evident to us that instituting a menstrual leave policy – well-intentioned as it might be - without putting in the hard work to create the right understanding, behaviour and culture would be counter-productive. Indeed, it may damage the cause rather than do good.

So – we decided to pause all discussions about menstrual leave. And rather focus on driving understanding, awareness, empathy, and behaviour change.

Establishing the Gender Program

Over nine months stretching across 2023 and early 2024, we conceptualized and ran multiple workshops for our field staff – with gendered cohorts of women, and also one with men which comprised supervisors and other male staff members. The idea was to create safe spaces for each cohort to explore ideas around menstrual health and sexuality without shame and fear of ridicule. Much thought went into what we needed to cover – because this could all go south if we were not sensitive to the context and alienated the very people that we wanted to include and co-opt in this important dialogue.

The approach followed a K-A-P structure delving into knowledge, attitudes and perceptions around the reproductive systems, menstrual cycles, products, common disorders, period taboos, period management hygiene, and product disposal. Another critical component we mindfully incorporated into the curriculum was the ‘language around period’. It was important to do this – to encourage confident articulations around women’s own menstrual experiences, promote allyship in men and kickstart a conversational shift in the community – enabling them to have these conversations with their family members and educate their children.?

All in all, we ended up doing five workshops, 4 hours each, with an overall 20 hours of engagement on this topic.?

While integrating ‘gender’ into our programs felt like the most natural and exciting thing to do, when one is trained on gender - both academically and experientially - it is easy to fall into jargon, ‘expert biases’ and module replication with programs like this. We had to constantly guard against implicit assumptions around what must go into the curriculum (what do they NEED to know), ‘fortune tell’ how batches will engage and respond with the material, and pre-empt the outcomes that we were driving.

Menstruation and Gender Stereotypes

As a co-trainer in the process – I was able to actualize our stereotypical tendencies as trainers– where we had gone into the sessions anticipating resistance, defensiveness and indifference on the part of the men while assuming the women would readily exhibit understanding and acceptance. That was far from the reality. ?After establishing a safe space for the men – they emerged curious, participative and genuinely keen to learn. They were also able to contextualize within their own lived experiences, bringing in narratives of – ‘I would like to talk to my wife about this’ and ‘I wish I had known this before…’.

For the men, the most critical shift was a change in their perspectives on what women need. Most of them had never even stopped to consider that menstruation is a unique process that brings with it care needs and bodily implications. They were also able to reflect on moments in their lives where conversations like this would have prevented health concerns for the women in their families. One of our male supervisors courageously shared about his mother experiencing sustained bleeding over many months – bleeding that he noticed but felt uncomfortable to address with her, and had chalked up to periods. This led to a delayed diagnosis of cervical cancer, and while she has made a full recovery since, he regrets not being equipped with this information then – ‘maybe I could have changed things for her, had I known then what I know now?’

A second learning has been around recognizing our privilege and positionality as trainers – this has worked both in our favour and against us in situations. For example, my co-trainer and I found ourselves advocating - sometimes rather fiercely - on feminist notions of agency and women exercising their rights around pleasure, marriage and virginity; we sometimes caught ourselves doing so in ways that almost were almost counterproductive to encouraging diversity of thought, provoking as they may be. Recognizing these biases and intrinsic beliefs as trainers helped us moderate and deliver sessions that are grounded in the context, rather than superimposing ‘idealized’ narratives of what ought to be.

A third facet of our learning has been to recognize that change is consistency in action. When it came to things like myth-busting and educating their children, both men and women exhibited concerns about the restrictive patriarchal realities they were embedded within. ?To them, it wasn’t so much about holding onto cultural taboos as it was about being able to take affirmative action against them within their houses and relationships. One participant lamented, “Yes ma’am, I understand the logic behind why this is just a myth – but if I go back to my house and give this reasoning to my husband or mother-in-law – I will face consequences. What should I do when I know better but don’t have the power to change things?” This was just a further validation of our decision to approach this topic more deliberately and thoughtfully – versus rushing to formulate a guideline. Indeed, we are now gearing up to aid our women in kickstarting these conversations within the community to build solidarity and awareness.

The Menstrual Leave Guideline

The last workshop in our series finally introduced all participants to the idea of a menstrual policy. We then developed our menstrual leave guideline and tested it through focus group discussions with a mixed-gender group of our field staff. For us to effectively operationalize it, we needed to think through use cases, reporting and documentation, and implementation pitfalls. So, bringing together members from each of our teams – community teachers, supervisors, frontline health workers, counsellors, doctors, and office staff, helped us contextualize our policy across these work contexts.?

A notable aspect of the guideline has been its emphasis on rest. Given that these women rarely get to rest within their houses, our policy also involved us establishing a resting station where women could rest and relax when needed.? We have also constantly driven home the point that the policy operates on ‘trust’ and ‘menstrual health as a right’ for women that they must never feel obligated to request for or defend.

The guideline has gone live effective 01 April 2024.

The process and its thoughtfulness have been immensely appreciated and have resulted in our women truly learning to put themselves first when it comes to their health. There is a perceptible difference in their body language - no longer feeling the need to hide, and speaking with more ease and openness, constantly educating one another through their own experiences with products, disposal and hygiene. The men on the other hand have become more empathetic and responsive. They have also been engaging in conversations with other men – friends, siblings as well as with their spouses and partners. These outcomes go well beyond the mere establishment of a menstrual policy and are leading to some important socio-cognitive shifts across the rungs of the organisation – in how we think of our bodies, our roles, the notions of care extending both to ourselves and those around us, and indeed our roles and obligation as a women-centric social impact organisation.

I sit here reflecting on the fact that despite a recent boom in gender, health & SRHR programs, there remains an overwhelming need on the ground and across organizational spaces to create platforms for such important conversations. ?The path ahead of us is long and winding, strewn with immense learning and re-learning – and our work is only just beginning. For us, at One Billion Literates Foundation, going through this process has only cemented the need for, and frequency of engagements around gender, with the communities we serve. Stay tuned for more updates, insights and reflections along our journey of building more gender interventions to normalize and mainstream experiences that continue to be silenced, minimized, and unaccounted for.

The journey so far has been full of learning, and filled with immense insights. And yet again – it has been established and validated that the process is as important as the outcome.

And for now, we are calling it a win.