The Socio-Cultural Values Placed on the Menstrual Blood and Menstruating Bodies of Zambian Women and the Implications for their Lived Experiences.

This research explores the socio-cultural values placed on the menstrual blood and menstruating bodies of women in Zambia. Development interventions that seek to address harmful socio-cultural values and norms are currently hindered by a lack of contemporary anthropological data. This interdisciplinary research bridging feminist theory, social anthropology, and international development seeks to fill this gap, placing the appropriate emphasis on exploring cultural norms surrounding menstruation and how these contribute to gender inequalities and impact on the lived experiences of women. Consideration of local socio-cultural environments is a step that the development community has missed, skipping ahead to practical, donor-driven interventions surrounding menstrual hygiene management (MHM) that are likely to be insensitive to local contexts, potentially causing social and cultural strain

Issues surrounding period poverty (a lack of access to sanitary products and adequate sanitation facilities due to financial constraints) are rightly gaining recognition in the development community as menstruation emerges as a cause of school absenteeism for many girls in both developed and developing countries. WASH practitioners are appropriately championing the rights of adolescent girls to dignity and privacy by focusing on the provision of better access to menstrual management materials and adequate sanitation facilities. However, broader discussion of social and cultural norms surrounding menstruation occurs much less frequently in both academic and policy circles. The existing development literature on menstruation focuses on menstrual hygiene management (MHM) and information deficiencies but more attention needs to be paid to less politically palatable discussions of stigma and social norms surrounding menstruation which this research will seek to do.

In light of rapid cultural change (as a result of factors such as migration, modernisation, and globalisation) and an increase in development interventions surrounding menstruation, the global paucity of contemporary anthropological studies on the topic of menstruation is extremely problematic. Context-specific values placed on the bodies and blood of menstruating women have strong implications not only on issues surrounding gender inequality but also on how development interventions are received in developing countries. As such, a feminist anthropological analytic lens will be used in this research as it places emphasis on both the identification and specific acknowledgement of gendered power dynamics as well as action; a quality the development community can build upon. A key research outcome is to provide a strong foundation for menstruation-related interventions which are sensitive to local needs, bridging the gap between academia and development practitioners.

Research Questions
1. What values are assigned to the menstrual blood and menstruating bodies of Zambian women in the contemporary context?
2. How are these values/norms/taboos perpetuated and by whom?
3. How do these impact:
a. Women's lived experiences of inhabiting female bodies
b. Their education (e.g. school attendance/completion)
4. How can development interventions surrounding menstruation adequately reflect local needs?