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Menstruation & humanistic management: The development and implementation of a menstrual workplace policy

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Abstract

This article explores menstruation in the workplace in the context of a humanistic management approach which highlights the values of respect, dignity, and wellbeing at work. Increased public conversation on menstruation in recent years, supported by research showing the detrimental effects of menstrual stigma on women’s physical and mental health, point to a shift in consideration for women’s menstrual wellbeing. This paper is based on my research on the development and implementation of a ‘period policy’ at Coexist, a social enterprise in Bristol, UK, which I undertook between October 2016 and December 2017. The policy was co-designed by management and staff, and uses flexible working arrangements and contingency planning to allow women greater support when menstruating. I discuss the effects of the policy and suggest avenues for future research.
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Menstruation and humanistic
management at work:
the development and implementation
of a menstrual workplace policy
Lara Owen
The policy was co-designed by management and staff, and uses flexible working arrangements and
contingency planning to allow women greater support when menstruating. I discuss the effects of the policy
and suggest avenues for future research.
Keywords
menstruation; menstrual leave; period policy; flexible working; contingency planning; Coexist
Introduction
This paper explores menstruation in the workplace in the context of a humanistic management approach
which highlights the values of respect, dignity and wellbeing at work. In recent years there has been an
increased level of interest in menstruation as a marginalised yet important aspect of women’s lives.
Research has shown the detrimental effects of menstrual stigma on women’s physical and mental health
(e.g. O’Flynn, 2006; Johnston-Robledo & Chrisler, 2013b) and the impact of menstrual prejudice on attitudes
to women in the workplace (Roberts, 2002). Social media conversations, media articles, the new ‘menstrual
activism’ (Bobel, 2010) and calls for ‘menstrual equity’ (Weiss-Wolf, 2017) point to a shift in consideration for
women’s menstrual wellbeing. Correspondingly, as a management and organisation studies scholar with a
special interest in women’s rights and wellbeing at work, I undertook an ethnographically-informed research
study on the development and implementation of a ‘period policy’ at Coexist, a social enterprise in Bristol,
UK, between October 2016 and December 2017. This paper describes the process of developing a new kind
of humanistic management policy from scratch.
This article explores menstruation in the workplace in the context of a
humanistic management approach which highlights the values of
respect, dignity, and wellbeing at work. Increased public conversation
on menstruation in recent years, supported by research showing the
detrimental effects of menstrual stigma on women’s physical and mental
health, point to a shift in consideration for women’s menstrual wellbeing.
This paper is based on my research on the development and
implementation of a ‘period policy’ at Coexist, a social enterprise in
Bristol, UK, which I undertook between October 2016 and December
2017.
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About the Humanistic Management
Network and AMED
The Humanistic Management Network (HMN) is an international group of practitioners and academics who
share a concern that organisations exist to benefit society. Humanistic management is based on three
principles; 1) respect for the dignity of each person, 2) ethical organizational decisions and processes and 3)
on-going dialogue with multiple stakeholders. Humanistic management (HM) can be a driver for sustained
business success and can reduce the cost of conflict, high levels ofContents stress-related absence, and the
costs of raising capital. But HM principles are not shared by everyone and are increasingly under threat. As
the newly-established Humanistic Management Network UK Chapter, we are very open to your suggestions
and ideas about how we can develop and grow.
Contact - Christina Schwabenland: christina.schwabenland@beds.ac.uk
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... Hence, although initially conceptually limited, menstrual leave has the potential to become more encompassing-i.e. non-sex-specific and seamlessly intertwined with related progressive policies-if understood through the lens of 'menstrual flexibility' as an umbrella term for a set of interrelated practices that support menstruating workers (Owen 2018). ...
... By answering the research question-what are the recurring themes in menstrual leave policy announcements?-I can engage with prior theoretical articulations and develop insights for the field. Although previous scholarship has analysed menstrual-related policy documents (Olson et al. 2022), few studies to date have investigated company-level menstrual leave policies (Owen 2018). Hence, this research fills a knowledge gap and is timely given the current interest in menstrual leave. ...
... That said, one must also consider how other aspects of work culture and structure, as well as unequal access to medical treatments among populations, influence how tolerable pain is at work. Addressing these cultures and structures can support menstruators at work, which is the goal of a more encompassing menstrual flexibility framework for policymaking (Owen 2018). Second, the results show that just over one third of menstruators report needing menstrual leave-although such a finding could again be impacted by prevailing work cultures and structures that do not enable menstruating employees to effectively manage pain at work, subtly pushing them back home when symptoms become intolerable. ...
Article
Menstrual leave is a policy allowing menstruators to take paid or unpaid time off work if experiencing painful menstrual cycle-related symptoms or illnesses. Scholars have displayed an increased interest in menstrual leave, primarily owing to the rise in companies offering menstrual leave. Efforts have been made to theorise the potential benefits and drawbacks of menstrual leave. Building on prior work, this article conducts a thematic analysis of twelve menstrual leave policy announcements from companies in five countries. Guided by an intersectional feminist theoretical framework, the article uncovers two themes in menstrual leave policy announcements: (1) recognition of menstrual stigma and the potential to normalise menstruation and menstrual health; and (2) the potential for increased worker power. It subsequently develops two critical arguments: (1) menstrual leave may perpetuate (hetero)sexist beliefs and attitudes, and (2) menstrual leave may reify individual responsibility to manage menstruation and facilitate a positive culture around menstrual leave. This research adds to menstruation literature by being one of the few studies to investigate company-level menstrual leave policy announcements in a transnational context. A broader conceptualisation of menstrual leave, including the transition to 'menstrual flexibility' as an umbrella term, could help such policies become equity tools.
... In 2016, a company in Bristol became the first organisation in the UK to launch "period leave" for its women employees [1], unusually situating menstruation as apart from sickness absence more generally. Such examples of changes in policy point to what is otherwise a strikingly absent topic in studies of occupational health and organisation studies on menstruation, conceptualised as one of the three Ms of gendered working lives (with the other two being maternity and menopause [2]). ...
... Online surveys are established tools for collecting data from participants living with chronic health conditions [72], despite limitations relating to access and potential brevity in responses [73]. Research exploring workplace experiences of menstruation and menopause have been largely interview based to access more detailed data from fewer participants [1,21]. ...
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The menstrual cycle remains neglected in explorations of public health, and entirely remiss in occupational health literature, despite being a problematic source of gendered inequalities at work. This paper proposes the new concept of blood work to explain the relationship between menstruation (and associated gynaecological health conditions) and employment for women and trans/non-binary people. We build on and extend health and organisational literature on managing bodies at work by arguing that those who experience menstruation face additional work or labour in the management of their own bodies through the menstrual cycle. We discuss how this additional labour replicates problematic elements that are identifiable in public health initiatives, in that it is individualised, requiring individual women and trans/non-binary people to navigate unsupportive workplaces. We present findings from an analysis of qualitative survey data that were completed by 627 participants working in higher education, revealing that employees’ blood work comprises distinct difficulties that are related to the management of painful, leaking bodies, access to facilities, stigma, and balancing workload. We suggest developing supportive workplaces and public health policies, which refocus the responsibility for accessible, equal workplaces that accommodate menstruating employees, and those with gynaecological health conditions.
... Some proponents of menstrual leave argue that such policies have the potential to benefit women by reducing stigma and encouraging more open discussion of menstruation (CBC Radio 2017). For example, as discussed earlier, at Coexist, female employees are encouraged to discuss menstruation with their line managers (Quarshie 2017) and menstrual leave is discussed in employee meetings among all staff members (Owen 2018;Quarshie 2017). Discussion of menstruation has the potential to be framed in a light that normalizes or neutralizes it, and therefore de-stigmatizes the conversation surrounding it and thus has the potential to reduce (self)objectification and the objectifying gaze of others. ...
Chapter
Full-text available
Levitt and Barnack-Tavlaris discuss the idea of menstrual leave, a policy option that provides employees with time off during menstruation. They counter the paucity of research surrounding the impacts of such policies on menstruators and the locations offering leave. Levitt and Barnack-Tavlaris argue that without addressing underlying sexist beliefs and attitudes as well as gender discrimination, menstrual leave could have negative effects on menstruators. The authors augment this research with findings from their previous study, which examines attitudes toward and perceptions of menstrual leave. Against this background, the chapter concludes with a discussion of alternative approaches to menstrual leave.
... In North America and Western Europe, menopause is still typically viewed in a negative light, a tendency that has intensified in the past few decades (Utz, 2011). Yet current research on menopause in the workplace continues to be scarce (Beck et al., 2022;Owen, 2018). ...
Article
Drawing from women's testimonials in The Guardian and from contributions of feminist writers, Virginia Woolf, Julia Kristeva, and Margaret Mead, we start a conversation on the positive and energizing aspects of menopause in the workplace. We propose a social interpretation of menopause that challenges a pervasive perspective of medical decline: A theorization of “the dialectic of zest,” as inspired by the writings of Margaret Mead. By problematizing the experiences of women going through this transition in the workplace, we reveal how well‐intentioned awareness campaigns can lead to further stigmatization. We thus encourage organizations to not only favor an approach of “education for all” but also extend their social imaginaries beyond medicalized perspectives and coping views. Organizations can then embrace the potential of “zest,” a positive side of menopause that remains largely unknown. We argue that organizations, inspired by a holistic view of menopause in the workplace, can creatively support the professional progressions and ambitions of not only women but also all employees.
... I have come across this same idea-that women are more protected by menstruation staying in the shadows than by talking about it-many times since, most recently when doing research on menstruation in the workplace (Owen, 2018). Menstruation has been so thoroughly stigmatised (e.g. de Beauvoir, 1953;Douglas, 1966;Johnston-Robledo and Chrisler, 2013) through a variety of strategies cross-culturally (Buckley and Gottlieb, 1988) to the extent that ignorance is widespread (Chrisler, 2013) and many cannot conceive of a culture safe enough to move past normative silencing and marginalisation (Young, 2005;Pascoe, 2007;Vostral, 2008). ...
Article
Full-text available
Menstruation has been historically stigmatised through a variety of strategies cross-culturally, including silencing and marginalisation. Such stigmatisation has affected the inclusion of menstruation as a topic of research across disciplines, reproducing stigma through a lack of research and new knowledge. I set out to discover more about the perceived nature and impact of such stigmatisation on the professional experience of menstrual researchers. The research cohort was a group of nine scholars from humanities and social science disciplines, living and working in the UK, USA and Russia, who came together in 2020 for a two year project to research menstrual history, activism, politics, education and culture in order to better understand the Scottish context of legislation to 'end period poverty'. I was also a member of this group and this paper is structured through an autoethnographic enquiry. My qualitative research was interview-based using online video meetings. My data shows that the perceived impact of menstrual stigma on academic research has altered, with older researchers experiencing more barriers in the early stages of their careers than younger ones do now. However, menstrual researchers still experience challenges they consider to be stigma-related in publishing menstrual research, in obtaining permanent positions centred on their specialisation, and in attracting long-term and large-scale funding. This research shows how entrenched stigma can lead to a feedback loop of victimisation that is difficult to escape from, and suggests that academics working on stigmatised topics may need specific types of institutional support in order to progress, publish and flourish.
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(1) Objectives: This paper presents a scoping review of global evidence relating to interventions (i.e., policies, practices, guidelines, and legislation) aimed at supporting women to manage menstruation, menstrual disorders, and menopause at work. (2) Methods: Databases including Medline (Ebsco), CINAHL (Ebsco), Scopus, Web of Science, APA PsychInfo (Ebsco), Humanities International Complete (Ebsco), Academic Search Premier (Ebsco), HeinOnline and OSH Update, and Google Scholar were searched in May 2022. (3) Results: Of 1181 unique articles screened, 66 articles are included. Less half of the articles (42%, 28/66) presented/reviewed an intervention related to women’s workplace health. A total of 55 out of the 66 articles are set across 13 countries with the remaining 12 articles described as multi-country studies or reviews. Half of the articles presenting/reviewing an intervention were grey literature, with several undertaken in UK and EU member countries. Interventions focusing on supporting women with menopause at work were the most common (43%, 12/28), followed by menstruation (25%, 7/28) and menstrual disorders (7%, 2/28). Across the reviewed articles, recommendations were categorised as adjustments to the physical work environment, information and training needs, and policy and processes. Few articles explicitly presented or affirmed a design-process and/or evaluation tied to their intervention. In lieu of design-process, this review categorises the rationales driving the development of an intervention as: pronatalist, economic rationalism, gendered occupational health concern, cultural shift towards gender equity objectives, and efforts to reduced shame and stigma. (4) Conclusions: There is a growing body of evidence aimed at understanding women’s experiences of managing their menstrual and reproductive health in the workplace and how this impacts their work/career trajectories. However, little research is explicitly concerned with exploring or understanding interventions, including their design or evaluation. Most articles report menopause guidelines and are typically confined to the UK and EU-member countries. Despite the prevalence of menstrual disorders (e.g., endometriosis and polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS)) there is limited literature focused on how women might be supported to manage symptoms associated with these conditions at work. Accordingly, future policies should consider how women can be better supported to manage menstruation and menstrual disorders at work and recognise the importance of co-design during policy development and post-intervention evaluation. Further research needs to be undertaken on the impact of workplace policies on both employers and employees.
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More than 1.8 billion people menstruate every month. Yet menstruation is still a taboo, including in the workplace, where the multiple challenges of menstruating workers remain largely unaddressed from exclusion from certain branches to inadequate facilities, inflexible workloads, and period jokes. To address this issue, the Swedish organi¶sation MENSEN has developed Period Works!, a unique ‘menstrual certification' involving employers, employees, and trade unions ‘to create a more period friendly work life'. The initiative reveals menstruators' challenges at work, particularly in terms of their rights to health, privacy, non-discrimination, and collective bargaining. Yet so far the legal literature and policies on the issue are scarce. To fill this gap, inspired by Period Works!, this article conceptualises a comprehensive human rights framework to promote menstrual health at work. It analyses whether states and employers, who mostly ignore menstruators' needs, are in breach of their existing legal obligations to promote menstruating workers' rights. The article also critically examines whether recognising menstruators’ rights at work would truly be a blessing, or if menstrual mainstreaming at work could increase discrimination and be a curse. The article argues that only a carefully crafted comprehensive human rights framework for menstrual health at work can address this paradox.
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On average, a woman spends 3,000 days of her life while menstruating. That is a lot of time to be on periods when you are already contending with other reproductive conditions that can cause heavy bleeding or might be severe painful periods. This study aims to know about the perception of male and females regarding the menstruation related symptoms effect on female employees' work productivity. Menstrual leave policy is a fundamental concept where a menstruating employee is allowed to take paid leave during their menstruation. The study revolves around the topic of the need for menstrual leave and its consequences according to male and female employees. In this study the researcher has explored the female perspective regarding the effect of menstruation on their work productivity. According to 96% of the female employees, their stress will reduce due to menstruation leave. According to 65% of the female employees, their productivity will improve due to menstruation leave. According to the 67% males, female employees' performance is less than usual due to menstruation.
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Menstrual disorders are a common presentation in primary care. Heavy menstrual bleeding is the most common concern, and is often treated by medical and surgical means despite lack of pathology. To explore women's experiences of menstrual disorders. Two qualitative studies using semi-structured interviews. Inner-city London. An initial study recruited women with heavy menstrual bleeding via their GPs. A follow-up study recruited women with a variety of menstrual problems via general practice and the community. Interviews were taped and transcribed then analysed using the constant comparative method. Management of menstruation was a prominent theme in interviews. Women acted to comply with a strong social message that menstruation should be concealed, although this behaviour was often 'taken for granted.' The need to conceal evidence or reminders of menstrual bleeding was particularly important. Onset of menstrual symptoms often challenged established strategies for menstrual management. Menstrual management then became a conscious problem and a source of continuing stress. The breakdown of management strategies, by real or threatened episodes of leaking or staining, influenced consultation behaviour and decisions about treatment. The social pressure to maintain concealment of menstruation is a strong influence on women's health-related behaviour in response to menstrual concerns. Women's choices may be better understood if attention is paid to the social context in which they live.
Feminist ethnography
  • Beverley Skeggs
Skeggs, Beverley, (2001). Feminist ethnography. In P. Atkinson, A. Coffey, S. Delamont, J. Loftland, & L. Loftland (Eds.), Handbook of ethnography (426-442). London, UK: SAGE Publications.