Power in periods: a Foucauldian-feminist exploration of menstruation in an all-girls’ secondary school in South Africa

Parkinson, Catherine Anne

Title: Power in periods: a Foucauldian-feminist exploration of menstruation in an all-girls’ secondary school in South Africa
Creator: Parkinson, Catherine Anne
Subject: Menstruation South Africa
Subject: Menstruation Social aspects South Africa
Subject: High school girls Health and hygiene South Africa
Subject: Communication in reproductive health South Africa
Subject: Sexual health South Africa
Subject: Sex differences (Psychology) in adolescence South Africa
Subject: Male domination (Social structure) South Africa
Subject: Feminist theory
Subject: Foucault, Michel, 1926-1984. Surveiller et punir. English
Subject: Discourse analysis
Date Issued: 2021-10-29
Date: 2021-10-29
Type: Master's theses
Type: text
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/190930
Identifier: vital:45042
Description: Absenteeism from school among girls due to a lack of menstrual health management (MHM) products has increasingly attracted attention from researchers and activists in recent years. Having highlighted the challenges caused by a lack of MHM products, the focus has been on the available facilities at schools to ensure MHM. Many schools in South Africa lack water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) to ensure hygiene standards for the removal of bodily excre-ment, which further causes distress to girls needing MHM while at school. To investigate fur-ther the MHM challenges girls face, apart from access to products and WASH, this qualita-tive study purposively selected an all-girls’ school with access to good sanitation facilities. This research uses Foucauldian Discourse Analysis and Feminist Theory to explore the forms of discipline and control that girls experience at school to contain their bodily functioning and fluids, and the forms of resistance and support that girls encounter with MHM at school. I will argue that the ambivalent meanings girls acquire about menstruation at home and in soci-ety persist at school despite their own views that menstruation is normal. While MHM prod-ucts and WASH facilities need to be freely available, the problematic social response to men-struation is what needs to be addressed in order to emancipate women from the social patriar-chal power that informs their understanding that menstruation is shameful. MHM cannot only encompass products and facilities but needs to encompass a change in societal views of sex-ual and reproductive health.
Description: Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Psychology, 2021
Format: computer
Format: online resource
Format: application/pdf
Format: 1 online resource (104 pages)
Format: pdf
Publisher: Rhodes University
Publisher: Faculty of Humanities, Psychology
Language: English
Rights: Parkinson, Catherine Anne
Rights: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Rights: Open Access

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