TY - JOUR

T1 - A Blessing or a Curse? An analysis of Menstrual Health Promotion in the Workplace from a Human Rights Perspective

AU - Olsen, Céline E J L Brassart

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - 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 organisation 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.

AB - 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 organisation 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.

U2 - 10.1080/18918131.2023.2190653

DO - 10.1080/18918131.2023.2190653

M3 - Journal article

VL - 41

SP - 151

EP - 170

JO - Nordic Journal of Human Rights

JF - Nordic Journal of Human Rights

SN - 1891-8131

IS - 2

ER -