Dr Inga Winkler from the LAW group has been granted an ERC Consolidator Grant for her project PERIODS 'Human Rights in the Menstrual Movement.' The project explores how activists and social movements seek to achieve menstrual justice. This grant will offer her the opportunity to work on her research for five years with a budget of two million Euro.
Winkler:" I am thrilled to work on this project and to collaborate with amazing partners. Menstruation has been silenced and neglected for so long, it is surrounded by a lot of stigma - and the impacts on society are enormous. After being belittled for researching menstruation for quite a while, the recognition through the European Research Council is a huge boost - for myself and for menstrual studies as a field of research."
The project gives Dr Winkler the opportunity to carry out a multi-sited study with movements in India, South Africa, the United States and Eastern Europe and to gain deep insights into their lived experiences and mobilization.
Why is research on menstruation needed?
Winkler: "Stigma around menstruation has profound effects on women's rights to education, employment, health, physical integrity and participation in social, cultural and public life. Women face barriers in society stemming from gender inequality, where women earn less, are seen as less capable and - especially when they menstruate - are seen as hysterical, too emotional and unfit to make decisions.
Some of this is changing, and in the last ten years, we have seen increasing attention to menstruation. We now have a period emoji, a documentary on menstruation has won an Oscar, and we see a lot of charitable initiatives to distribute menstrual products.
What is to be done?
Winkler:' These initiatives are great. However, there is a 'but'. Many of these efforts remain superficial, they leave menstrual stigma intact and gender injustices unaddressed. In current efforts menstrual pads are omnipresent, and you can think of them as a band-aid, a fluffy layer of cotton and cellulose that serves to catch the flow but at the same time conveys to people that it is their responsibility to manage their flow, to conceal it, to keep it private. As menstruators we continue to be told to keep our messy, leaky bodies under control.
And as long as we focus almost exclusively on material solutions, we do not recognize the socio-cultural constructions, gendered stereotypes, misogynist attitudes, and the power menstrual stigma holds over our lives.
In my project, I will study whether and how social movements address these more invisible and intangible impacts. I will focus on the parts of the menstrual movement that typically do not make headlines and are not represented in global forums but often relegated to the margins.
For instance, I have been working with the Safai Karmachari Andolan, the Dalit movement of manual scavengers (manual sanitation workers) in India who are at the 'lowest' end of the caste system. Among them are feminists whose understanding of gender justice is rooted in their lived experience and intersecting forms of oppression based on gender, caste, occupation, family status, age, and other factors. They have been doing amazing work in convening groups of women and using menstrual justice as an entry point to discuss and change gender relations.
I hope that this research contributes to bringing about societal change. Ultimately, I want to live in a society where no one is disadvantaged simply because they menstruate.'
