Short Abstract:

To increase the idea of menstrual justice's applicability outside of the Global North, the study aims to approach a new lens named the Intersectional Environmental Gender-Centric Approach by combining various approaches. This approach may work to ensure that the needs of the most affected menstruators are met.

Long Abstract:

Research Context:

Menstrual injustice is a ubiquitous and disregarded public health issue that still affects a great number of people who are menstruating. Consequently, the embarrassment and discomfort may deteriorate overall well-being, so that millions of women are subjected to injustice and inequity due to menstruation. For example, menstruation-related stigma and a lack of menstruation products can lead to frequent absences from school, jobs, and other activities, disrupting education and adding to financial stress. Hence, menstrual justice is necessary to advance women's equality and the achievement of dignity and liberty. Moreover, menstrual justice recognises the multifaceted needs of diverse communities to achieve meaningful change in menstrual equity and health practices, as women's personal, cultural, and political contexts influence the significance and meaning of menstruation. That’s why the legal scholar of the US, Margaret E. Johnson, has created a comprehensive framework for menstrual justice that integrates justice, rights, and advocacy. Johnson explains menstrual justice as "the oppression of menstruators, women, girls, transgender men and boys, and non-binary persons, simply because they menstruate." Furthermore, he divided all menstrual injustices into five categories: widespread injustices that lead to isolation and essentialization; harassment, discrimination, and constitutional violations; insults and indignities; disadvantageous economic conditions; and advantages related to health. This framework also acknowledges that there is more to menstruation than just health, sanitation, and having access to the right supplies. Moreover, Johnson proposes a method for evaluating menstruation activism that uses a "structural intersectionality lens," based on the research of Kimberlé Crenshaw. By using this lens, society can address the intersections of racial, socioeconomic, and gender identities with societal classification to combat multifaceted menstrual injustice. But it's important to recognise that social injustices are rarely "just" about race, gender, or any other kind of marginalisation and oppression; rather, they usually operate at the intersection of multiple identities. Therefore, it is accredited that no single approach to improving menstrual health and hygiene management (MHHM) that directs to justice across and within countries is likely to work for all contexts globally because menstruators’ experiences vary across a range of disciplines, geographic areas, socioeconomic, and cultural backgrounds.

Conversely, the "Global South" which includes emerging Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East has been linked with poverty, climate crisis, disease, political tyranny, and an overall lack of development. In multidimensional Global South contexts, the framework remains silent on several agendas related to menstruation. Johnson argues that to guarantee menstrual justice for all menstruators, such effort might be reinforced by taking into account how menstrual justice affects structural intersectionality. Therefore, to increase the idea of menstrual justice's applicability outside of the Global North, the study aims to approach a new lens named the Intersectional Environmental Gender-Centric Approach by combining various approaches. This approach may work to ensure that the needs of the most affected menstruators are met.

Methodology:

Methodologically, this research depends on content analysis of supporting documents of menstrual justice and menstrual wellbeing.

Analysis and Conclusion:

By analyzing its parts and mechanisms, this new lens can help us comprehend how society responds to or resists unwanted change and the dysfunctions of the social structure that perpetuate menstruation unfairness in society. This lens has proposed affirmative action that, in some circumstances, may be mandated under the equality principle to reduce or eliminate the elements that foster or encourage prejudice and to include all marginalized, untreated menstruators. Interventions and strategies need to be applied to people's circumstances and easily understood. It's critical to understand the diverse social, economic, and political contexts to address the demands of varied populations. By examining case studies and supporting data, this lens may help identify needs and requirements that are special to a certain setting. In a similar vein, this lens has given menstruators' capacities top priority, while considering the variety of human requirements as well as individual and environmental factors. Therefore, this lens includes the capability approach (CA) to assess human well-being by exploring inequalities, freedom, and rights. Due to its aid in comprehending how social construction within educational institutions results in gender disparities. Owing to the unregulated academic environment that produces derisory systems of education with incorrect educational priorities, particularly, in the form of inadequate water and sanitation facilities, menstruating schoolgirls are unable to exercise their right to comfortable and regular attendance at school during their menstrual periods. Consequently, the capacity approach aids in the understanding of educational systems that seek to promote health and education, encompassing elements such as helpful instructors, appropriate learning environments, and even peer support for learning. Moreover, by emphasizing the needs and values of menstruating schoolgirls, this strategy promotes gender equality in education.

As a result, this lens is inclusive, gender-centered, and human rights-based while also being environmentally sustainable. It entails placing a high premium on the interests and concerns of certain communities or groups. Additionally, this lens critically analyzes how menstruation and the environment are related. Menstruators may find it easier to recognize the knowledge in their own lives and experiences that supports their meaningful engagement to improve justice and inclusiveness through the use of this lens. Moreover, the new lens of the menstrual justice framework operates as an interconnected and comprehensive system, where actions at each level contribute interdependently to a transformative shift. It adjusts individual needs with community necessities, institutional policies, national strategies, and global advocacy creating a unified front to secure menstrual justice worldwide.

Keywords: Intersectional Environmental Gender-Centric Approach, menstrual justice, Global South