Key facts:
Every day, all over the world, millions of girls miss school because they menstruate
According to UNICEF, 1 in 10 girls in Africa regularly misses school during her period
If a girl misses on average 4 days of school every four weeks due to her period, she will end up missing 10-20% of all classes
Giving girls access to schooling is a central part of eradicating global poverty
The more school days girls miss, the more likely they are to face trafficking, exploitation, child marriages and teen pregnancies
Every child – including every girl – has the right to quality education. However, all over the world, millions of girls miss school every day because they need to navigate something completely natural, yet sometimes very challenging – menstruation. Menstruation is a natural bodily function, a commonly shared experience among all women. Women menstruate for an average of 40 years, during which they tend to use more than 11 thousand sanitary pads and tampons.
For many girls menstruation presents an unbearable hardship that drastically affects their ability to attend school and consequently their opportunity for a better future. There is a strong indication that the onset of a girl's period affects the amount of education she receives. According to UNICEF, at least 1 in 10 girls in Africa regularly misses school during the whole duration of her period. If that is the case, it means that some girls might be missing as much as 10 to 20 percent of school days each month. This is one of the major reasons why in many developing countries secondary school enrollment often remains significantly lower for girls than for boys.
Four main reasons why girls miss school while on their period
Factors that determine whether a girl has access to education are complex and multifaceted. Nevertheless, menstruation tends to be one of the major, yet often overlooked, reasons for young girls to miss school. There are four main reasons why girls miss school while on their period:
1. Firstly, lacking access to sanitary products for example because of their high costs can make it difficult for girls to go to school during their period. This lack of period products is often referred to as ‘period poverty’.
2. Secondly, girls are very likely not to attend school during their period if the school lacks safe and single-sex hygienic facilities that are essential to menstrual hygiene management. According to UNICEF, in 2016, nearly one-third of schools around the world still lacked basic water, sanitation and hygiene facilities.
3. Thirdly, girls having insufficient information about menstruation presents another barrier. In many developing countries, there is no mandated or very limited education concerning sexual and reproductive health including menstruation, as teachers are hesitant or unwilling to discuss it because of the topic being taboo or because they are uninformed themselves.
4. Fourthly, even today, the conversation around menstruation sadly remains taboo. This can lead to girls facing stigma, harassment and social exclusion while having their period. They also might fear menstrual accidents and therefore not wanting to attend school. In some societies, girls are not even allowed to leave the house when menstruating, therefore not being capable to attend classes.
The situation is even worse in conflict-affected areas, where girls are more than twice likely to be out of school. This shows that in humanitarian crisis situations girls' education tends to be particularly vulnerable.
Access to education as a way towards gender equality and out of poverty
The World Bank notes that giving girls access to education is a central part of eradicating global poverty. When girls miss school because they menstruate, their education suffers, their futures suffer and, ultimately, the world suffers. In general, we see a huge multiplier effect of improvements related to girls getting better education in terms of society, health, and political stability. Female education is also considered a vital tool to ensure equity in educational access for the next generation. According to the estimates of the World Bank, for every extra year of primary education beyond the mean, a girl’s eventual wage rate increases on average by 10-20 percent.
“Better educated women tend to be healthier, participate more in the formal labour market, earn higher incomes, have fewer children, marry at a later age, and enable better health care and education for their children, should they choose to become mothers. All these factors combined can help lift households, communities, and nations out of poverty.”
Missing school during their period can lead to girls falling behind and therefore making their parents question the value of their education, which in turn increases the likelihood of a dropout. Dropping out of school makes young women more prone to early marriage, teenage pregnancy and puts them at a higher risk of trafficking, exploitation and other harmful practices.
What can be done?
There is no simple solution to the problem as it requires complex interventions on multiple grounds. In order for the situation to improve, we need to work on all aspects of the problem, because improving one aspect without the others will not solve the issue. There are three main aspects that need to be addressed:
Firstly, improve the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities in schools, which has been associated with higher rates of girls’ school attendance.
Secondly, increase accessibility to sanitary products, which can be achieved in multiple ways, including lowering their price, providing them for free or using products such as menstrual cups, which require an initial investment but later are very low-maintenance.
Thirdly, provide young people with comprehensive sexual and reproductive health education, which has been shown to be correlated with more supportive environments, where girls can freely talk about menstruation and help each other cope.
Is the answer to keeping girls in school as simple as
providing them with a menstrual cup?
To conclude, menstruation is a significant barrier to education that is often ignored. Only once menstrual health is taken into account, we can begin to dream of achieving universal secondary education as well as education-related gender equality. Ensuring that no child is excluded from education based on their gender is of utmost importance.
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