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Periods have always been political, but after centuries of silence and stigma they are finally taking centre stage. Across the world, governments are introducing new laws and policies – from providing free menstrual products in schools and public buildings, to workplace menstrual leave, and scrapping ‘tampon taxes’.
Much progress has been made, but millions still face discrimination and injustice just because of their periods. Period Politics uncovers the global struggle for menstrual justice, from period poverty to menstrual stigma, abuses of power in prisons and refugee camps, to the rise of the far right and the ensuing backlash against menstrual activism.
Fran Amery is Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Bath. Her previous book, Beyond Pro-Life and Pro-Choice: The Changing Politics of Abortion in Britain was published in 2020 by Bristol University Press.
Melanie Channon is Professor of Demography and Global Health Policy at the University of Bath and Vice-President of the British Society for Population Studies. She also leads the Menstrual Justice in Low- and Middle-Income Countries project.
Jennifer Thomson is Senior Lecturer in Comparative Politics at the University of Bath. Her research focuses on gender and foreign policy, and the global politics of sexual and reproductive health.
Introduction: Periods are political
Chapter 1. ‘We never really studied the female body’: menstruation and medical science
Chapter 2. Tampon tax back? Why products alone won’t end period poverty
Chapter 3. Breaking the ‘curse’: How governments (fail to) challenge period stigma
Chapter 4. From school to work: periods don’t stop when you get a job, so why should policy?
Chapter 5. Influencers, apps and Disney: how we learn about menstruation
Chapter 6. Periods as punishment: menstruating when you’re stripped of power
Chapter 7. Temples, trans panic and Tampon Tim: periods and reactionary politics
Conclusion: Where next for period politics?