Professor of economics Anja Benshaul-Tolonen recently co-authored a chapter in the open-access book The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies, which included a variety of social and scientific lenses. Her chapter is titled "Measuring Menstruation-Related Absenteeism Among Adolescents in Low-Income Countries” and was co-authored by Garazi Zulaika, Marni Sommer, and Penelope A. Phillips-Howard. They investigate the relationship between the availability of menstrual hygiene products and schoolgirls’ school attendance in low-income countries, pointing out that this issue has been misunderstood in the past due to biased sources that ignored the lifestyle-impacting scope of “menstrual-related absenteeism.” Their analysis makes a case for further research on this topic that would take into consideration a wider variety of variables and outcomes in order to determine precisely how a girl’s menstruation affects her well-being.
