In response to the Women and Equalities Committee Inquiry into Reproductive Health Conditions: Girls and Young Women, Shireen Kanji, a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Greenwich, submitted two pieces of evidence, alongside colleagues at Brunel, University of London and University of Western Ontario.
The evidence focussed on (1) how culture shapes knowledge, education and information about menstruation, as well as the provision of period products, and (2) how cultural images, communication and norms about fertility can shape knowledge, understanding and empathy.
Key recommendations on shaping menstruation knowledge were:
- To think about how representations of menstruation shape information and knowledge about menstruation in education.
- For quality education and information to be provided, experiences of menstruation must be considered alongside broader social inequalities (e.g. the experience of period poverty is not only about gender inequality but poverty)
- An evaluation of the current period product provision and whether it should be offered to a wider range of groups. Simultaneously, identifying what is needed to solve period poverty beyond discussing period products.
- To provide education, information and provision about period poverty, those experiencing the issue must be involved in any new initiatives.
See the full evidence submission here
Key recommendations on shaping fertility knowledge were:
- Further research into how social and cultural understandings of egg freezing and fertility shape decision-making on egg freezing.
- Further research into which work-family reconciliation policies and corporate cultures expand choices of when to become parents and how egg freezing relates to these options.
- An evaluation of the quality and transparency of communications about egg freezing from fertility clinics and Human Resources (HR) in work organisations.
- Consideration of whether further regulation may be necessary to support high-quality, evidence-based and impartial information about social egg freezing in the above sites
See the full evidence submission here
