Towards menstrual mobilities and period-positive ecologies

Abstract

Global organizations have long identified and declared women’s health, wellbeing, and empowerment as critical development goals with a push on leveraging information communication technology (ICT) to accomplish the same (e.g., Sustainable Development Goal-5). More recently, women’s health has been receiving growing attention in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), with efforts acknowledging the need and value of studying the social impact of women’s health issues. Menstrual health has drawn exponential interest in the last decade, with researchers extensively studying mobile application-based tracking practices and ethical concerns around collecting and managing intimate data through such apps. However, most of these studies represent experiences from the Global North. In this dissertation, I extend these ongoing conversations within the HCI community by investigating how technology can play a role in addressing cultural taboos and systemic barriers toward supporting a menstruator’s journey. In India, as in several other countries, menstruation has historically remained a taboo, making it challenging to facilitate conversations around menstrual health and wellbeing, eventually contributing to negative menarche experiences, low self-esteem, and fear of embarrassment among menstruators. I study the broader ecosystem of the urban Indian middle-class population to investigate how menstrual taboo is sustained, menstrual silence is learned, menstrual literacy is cultivated, and how the design of contemporary ICTs can and does support the emergence and operation of these forms of socio-cultural sensemaking and meaning making. Through a series of qualitative and design studies conducted in Delhi, India, this dissertation broadly attempts to unpack avenues for technology design to build intellectual and human infrastructure and support civic and material infrastructure toward nurturing period-positive ecologies. Here, I engaged with the cis-women and prominent stakeholders in their vicinity to study technology engagement for constructing and disseminating menstrual literacy and seeking support for safe menstrual mobilities and hygiene practices. The findings across my studies inform recommendations for designing menstrual intervention within and beyond the realm of technology, centering emancipation from menstrual taboo toward facilitating open and respectful communication around the subject. Drawing on feminist perspectives and the capabilities approach, I tease out lessons for taking a long, embodied, and ecological approach to designing menstrual technologies. In the process, I unpack critical tradeoffs around privacy, agency, and advocacy and raise a pressing question around technology adoption—how much must design abide by societal norms to gain adoption and approval, and how far might it push these boundaries? Drawing attention to the severity of the tradeoffs, I offer a set of socio-technical design recommendations for taking a responsible approach to designing menstrual technologies toward carving positive menstrual futures. The findings of this research could be utilized to bolster and provide insightful guidance for policy frameworks that promote inclusive, just, and equitable menstrual futures.