Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Africa water, Sanitation May-June2015 Vol. 10 No.3 | Page 33

Hygiene

Tackling the Taboo of Menstruation

By Chris W. Williams
In 1995, global rights activists sent a powerful message
about the urgent need for gender equality in political,
civic, economic, cultural and social life. Two decades later,
women and girls have made powerful strides in closing the
gender gap.
Worldwide maternal deaths are down by 45 percent,
however 800 women still die every day from preventable
pregnancy complications. Globally, the percentage of
women in parliament has nearly doubled over the last 20
years, however females only represent 22 percent of current
leaders.

Cameroon, for example, said there are no toilets in any
of the public places they frequent, including where they
work.
The average women menstruates for 3000 days in her
lifetime, however the subject is constrained by taboos that
prevent girls from learning how to manage their periods
hygienically and safely.

Despite the progress that women have made in education,
health and political power, shocking levels of violence and
discrimination against women persist, and gender parity
remains a distant goal.
One of the least discussed, yet most pervasive stigmas in
gender equality is female menstruation. In every country,
the veil of silence around menstruation contributes to
sexism that can hold women back in their personal lives
and professional careers.

This culture of silence is pervasive among women in
Central and West Africa, where women lack basic
information. 82 percent of respondents in Cameroon said
that they had heard of menstruation, but did not know
what caused it. 40 percent of girls and women surveyed
in the Kedougou region of Senegal said that they were
frightened by their first period.
The consequences of this taboo hit hardest in the least
developed parts of the world, where silence translates into
a lack of services and education for women and girls.

In a series of studies to be released this week by the Water
Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC)
and UN Women, researchers found that women in Central
and West Africa lack access to clean water, private spaces
and well-designed toilets, depriving them of a place
to clean themselves and change with both privacy and
dignity. 64 percent of women and girls interviewed in
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Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene • May - June 2015

Inadequate infrastructure and guidelines for women results
in a staggering economic loss, dragging these poor regions
into further cycles of poverty. 96 percent of surveyed
women in Kedougou, for example, did not regularly
go to work while they were menstruating, according to
the WSSCC/UN Women study. Access to toilets also
improves literacy rates. More than half of girls who drop
out of primary school in sub-Saharan Africa do so because
of a lack of separate toilets and easy access to safe water,
according to the ONE campaign
It is time for the global community to break its silence on
menstruation so that women and girls can discuss the topic