The Menstrual Health and Gender Justice working group has released a series of op-ed’s, articles, and reflections related to the themes of menstrual health and gender justice just in time for Menstrual Health Day 2020.

Students from the Menstrual Health course “Menstruation Gender & Rights” penned op-ed’s drawing attention to various facets of menstruation neglected in mainstream discourse. Working group director, Inga Winkler, also discusses what she’s learned from her students regarding the menstrual movement. The Spring 2020 “Menstruation Gender & Rights” course was taught by working group fellows Inga Winkler, Noémie Elhadad, Lauren Houghton, Anja Benshaul-Tolonen, and Chris Bobel and was funded by the Provost’s Interdisciplinary Teaching Award.

Course instructor and working group fellow Noémie Elhadad also recently co-authored the article “Characterizing physiological and symptomatic variation in menstrual cycles using self-tracked mobile-health data.”

Below is a full list of recent articles from the Menstrual Health working group. Be sure to also check out their blog, Periods at Columbia, for regular updates and posts from the group.

The default body is extinct. Today’s bodies menstruate., by Alexis Buncich

Characterizing physiological and symptomatic variation in menstrual cycles using self-tracked mobile-health data, by Noémie Elhadad

The COVID-19 ‘Baby Boom,’ Contraception and Why I Could Not Wait for my First ‘Quarantine Period, by Nay Elhelhou

Menstrual stigma has stained society, and schools have done nothing to stop the leak, by Ilana Hammer

Bleeding While Competing, by Julia Kepczynska

Red-Colored Cushions, by Sonya Yoonah Kim

Getting Off Red Handed: The Taboo-busting Power of Menstrual Masturbation, by Rowena Kosher

Unraveling the Menstrual Concealment Myth, by Mary Olson

A Call for Body Positive Menstrual Activism, by Lucie Paradis

The upsides of the forbidden birth control pill for unmarried women and girls, by Tasnia Shahjahan

#EmergingMenstrualVoices call for a bolder menstrual movement that’s radical, political, and holistic, by Inga Winkler

Reconsidering What is Essential: Pads Behind Bars, by Lauren Winters