Beliefs and attitudes toward menstruation must change and the stigma traditionally associated with it needs to be challenged continuously before the idea of introducing menstrual leave is contemplated, Dr Claire Azzopardi Lane, the deputy dean of the University of Malta’s Faculty for Social Wellbeing, said.

Azzopardi Lane was asked for her feedback after PL MP Rosianne Cutajar recently called for a national discussion about the introduction of menstrual leave.

Menstrual leave is time off given to women with specific medical disorders whose painful periods make it difficult for them to go about their regular lives, including going to work or school. Cutajar had said that there are women who even lost their jobs as there isn't enough awareness about this reality.

Azzopardi Lane, who is currently an academic within the Department of Gender and Sexualities, said that this initiative, though welcomed, needs to be understood within a wider social context.

She further added that the potential implications of menstrual leave may be determined by how a policy is both worded and implemented; that is, the intentions that underlie the creation of such a policy can determine the outcome. If menstrual leave legislation intends to prop up traditional gender roles then it will have a certain effect, while if it intends to question those roles, it will have another.

To contextualize the debate, menstrual leave policies exist across the globe in places such as Japan, Taiwan, China, South Korea, Indonesia, Zambia  and Mexico, with some professional organisations and companies having chosen to implement menstrual leave measures too, including Coexist in the United Kingdom, Culture Machine and Gozoop in India, and the Victorian Women’s Trust in Australia.

Naturally, the present discussion on menstrual leave must be understood within the particular cultural context that exists in Malta, so while the examples of how these measures were implemented in other countries can be beneficial, we cannot assume that Malta will react in the same way, she said. 

Nonetheless, in many of the societies mentioned, “menstruation has been used to marginalize and oppress women and other menstruators through the process of objectification and the ideology of sexism, which is a way of viewing sex and gender in traditional, stereotypical ways. This is also the case in Malta”, she said. 

“This stigma socially conditions menstruators to conceal menstruation and avoid discussion about it, which can be detrimental to menstruators’ psychological well-being. The resulting negative perceptions of menstruation can affect women’s personal and professional achievements and success, physical health and their right to feel empowered and experience equality,” the deputy dean said.

Proponents of menstrual leave argue that such policies have the potential to de-stigmatise the discussion of menstruation in the workplace, she said.

However, continued Azzopardi Lane, “there is a paucity of research on the effects of these policies and there is no research to date on the ways in which menstrual leave may be counterproductive to the overall welfare of menstruators through unintended consequences, such as perpetuating sexist beliefs and attitudes, contributing to menstrual stigma, negatively impacting the gendered wage gap and reinforcing the medicalisation of menstruation”.

It’s also the case that the wording and intention of the legislators will have an impact on the effects. For instance, both Zambia's menstrual leave policy, which emphasises women's presumptive position as mothers or future mothers, and Japan's menstrual leave policy, which was developed to protect women's ability to produce children, are examples of benevolent sexism that occur in the context of menstrual leave, she said.

“Therefore the language used in menstrual leave policies must be created with the intention of ensuring that the policy fosters normalisation and open discussion of menstruation and does not perpetuate objectification, sexism and patriarchal misconceptions about menstruation,” said Azzopardi Lane.

Despite the legislation being a push in the right direction, the intentions behind its implementation would show that the underlying cultural norms would go unchallenged, she said.

“While the effects of menstrual leave policies on menstruators’ overall well-being are unclear and in large part dependent on how policies are developed and implemented, what seems evident is that some menstruators would benefit from workplace flexibility more generally by enjoying, for example, more time off, the ability to work from home or customised work schedules,” she said.

Azzopardi Lane said that this conversation can also serve as a scaffold towards discussing other related matters too.

“Assessing the pros and cons of menstrual leave can serve as an entry point to discussions about workplace culture and accommodations more generally,” she said. In order to prevent discrimination caused by menstruation regulations, it is vital to explore whether flexibility can be extended to other stigmatised health problems such as irritable bowel syndrome, mental health issues and HIV.

Azzopardi Lane said that “in order for menstrual leave policies to be fully beneficial to menstruators’ well-being, cultural beliefs about and attitudes toward menstruation must change. Menstrual stigma must be continuously challenged and heteropatriarchal beliefs dismantled”.

Policies regarding menstrual leave will only advance gender equality if they are implemented in environments that are dedicated to combating menstruation stigma and eliminating gender-based injustice, she said.